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Division . . .  rfrrf.yrf. . .  i 


Section 
Number 


GOD'S    TIMEPIECE 

FOR 

MAN'S  ETERNITY. 


ITS    PURPOSE    OF    LOVE    AND    MERCY  ;      ITS    PLENARY 

INFALLIBLE    INSPIRATION  ;    AND    ITS    PERSONAL 

EXPERIMENT    OF    FORGIVENESS    AND 

ETERNAL    LIFE    IN    CHRIST. 


BY 

REV.  GEORGE  B.  CHEEVER,  D.D., 

AUTHOR  OF"  LECTURES  ON  THE  PILGRliM'S  PROGRESS";   "THE  RIVER  OF  THB 

WATER  OF   life";    "a   PILGRLM   IN  THE  SHADOW   OF    MONT    BLANC "; 

"  VOICES  OF  NATURETO  THESOUL";  "  VOYAGE  TOTHE  CELESTIAL 

country";  ''lectures  on  cowper";  "powers  of  the 
WORLD  TO  come";  ''faith,  doubt  and  evidence,"  etc. 


NEW  YORK: 

A.  C.  ARMSTRONG  &  SON, 

714   Broadway. 

1883. 


Copyright,  1883, 
By  a.  C.  ARMSTRONG  &  SON. 


PRESS  OF    J.    J.  LITTLE  t  CO., 
NOS.    10   TO  20    ASTOR   PLACE,  NEW  VOHIC, 


V 


PREFACE. 


From  Alpha  to  Omega,  The  Volume  of  the  Book 
WRITTEN  OF  Me,  IS  One  and  Eternal;  perfect,  infalli- 
ble, indivisible,  even  as  Christ  is  one  and  the  same, 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever.  In  its  purpose  of 
Love  and  Mercy,  its  absolute  plenary  inspiration, 
its  all-sufficiency  in  Time,  its  ceaseless  accum- 
ulation and  progress  of  spiritual  Light  and  Life 
through  Eternity,  it  is  "  tlie  Laiu  of  the  Spirit 
of  Life  in  Christ  Jesits."  As  God's  infallible  Word 
in  Christ,  it  is  man's  only  possible  law  of  lib- 
erty; THE  Spirit  and  the  Word;  whatsoever  the 
Spirit  saith  unto  the  churches.  Being  God's  Law 
in  Christ,  it  is  our  Life  and  blessedness;  the  Book 
of  God's  absolute  Prepossession  in  us  from  the 
CRADLE  TO  THE  GRAVE.  In  itsclf  are  our  appointed 
tests  of  its  infallible  unalterable  inspiration  and 
certainty,  incapable  of  diminution  or  addition ;  the 


iv  Preface. 

inspiration  and  its  tests  wholly  at  our  own  pleas- 
ure and  power,  by  our  daily  experimental  use  of  it, 
watching  not  only  at  the  posts  of  its  doors,  but  with- 
in its  Holy  of  Holies;  and  'praying  in  the  Holy  Ghost 
for  its  demonstration  in  our  own  soul's  experience, 
and  for  its  fruit  in  our  daily  life,  by  the  faith  it  in- 
spires and  produces,  working  by  love,  purifying  the 
heart,  overcoming  the  world. 

All  this,  God's  Timepiece,  our  Bible;  with  its  place 
and  guidance  in  the  soul  of  Man;  God's  indwelling 
telephone  of  word,  thought  and  impulse;  every  ray 
of  light,  God's  voice,  God's  electric  touch,  quickening 
every  instant  for  Eternity ;  as  a  perfect  watch  in 
the  bosom  directs  a  man  by  its  ticking,  through 
the  minutes  and  hours  of  each  single  day.  He 
minds  his  watch  every  day,  and  winds  it  iip,  and 
cannot  carry  on  his  business  without  it.  Let  him 
keep  God's  Timepiece  in  his  heart,  as  he  does  his 
watch  in  his  pocket,  and  it  will  carry  him  and  his 
business  for  eternity,  without  need  of  any  other 
guidance.  God  in  Christ  lives  and  breathes  in  it, 
and  in  the  soul  that  hides  it.  It  is  perpetual  mo- 
tion and  Eternal  Life.  "Thy  Word  have  I  hid  in 
mine  heart,  that  I  might  not  sin  against  Thee." 
It  is,  within  and  without,  a  union  of  Chronometer 
and  Compass;   and  the  Micrometer-Screw  besides, 


Preface.  v 

measuring  the  vastest  and  compressing  into  action 
the  minutest  spaces  and  motions  of  time,  thought, 
and  character. 

Take  care  of  the  minutes,  and  the  hows  will  take 
care  of  themselves.  Words  are  to  Scripture  and  its 
texts,  what  moments  are  to  Time  and  its  seasons. 
If  a  single  second  were  wanting,  or  too  much,  in 
the  mechanism  and  motions  of  the  Universe,  it 
would,  ere  long,  become  a  chaos.  And  so  with  the 
language  of  a  Divine  Inspiration.  The  seconds 
govern  the  minutes,  the  minutes  the  hours,  the 
hours  the  days;  and  so  on,  through  the  whole 
round  of  weeks,  months,  seasons,  years;  and  so, 
with  the  same  accuracy,  must  the  words  and  sen- 
tences of  God's  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity  be 
constructed  for  the  expression  and  interpretation 
of  God's  will,  God's  thoughts. 

It  cannot  be  supposed  that  God  would  leave  His 
attributes  at  the  mercy  of  human  beings,  to  be  de- 
scribed m  language  or  style  of  their  own  choice  or 
invention.  What  are  His  thoughts,  and  what  reve- 
lations of  them  men  need,  God  must  teach  His  ser- 
vants a  language  to  express,  without  mistake,  with 
the  right  words  in  their  right  places.  Therefore 
Tcada  ypacpr]  BsoTtvsvdro^,  All  Scripture  is  inspired  of 
God.  is  God-breathed,  for  Man's  Eternal  Salvation, 


vi  Preface. 

and  is  infallible  through  Jesus  Christ.  This  is  the 
argument  and  intent  of  the  present  volume,  for 
which  we  earnestly  desire  a  patient  consideration, 
and  upon  which  we  humbly  implore  the  divine 
blessing. 


CONTENTS. 


Inteoduction.  The  Divine  Eevelation  is  of  Certainties,  not 
Obscurities— The  Unknown  must  be  studied  by  the  Known 
—The  Uncertainties  of  any  Law-book,  its  condemnation— 
An  uncertain  Law,  a  Trap' for  Ruin— All  the  Laws  of  God 
the  Result  of  Lifiuite  Love— Only  one  Code  of  Laws  ever 
revealed  by  the  Almighty xvii 

I— II. 

Christ's  divine  personality  the  light  and  life  op 

THE    whole    bible. 

Christ  the  central  Light,  Life,  and  Proof  of  the  whole  Bible,  de- 
pendent throughout  on  His  divine  Personality— The  whole 
written  of  Him,  and  for  Him,  that  in  Him  we  may  have 
Eternal  Life— The  Scriptures  therefore  of  God  manifest  in 
the  Flesh,  the  great  Mystery  of  Godliness .   1 

The  Things  revealed  are  ours  fobever— Everything  dependent 
on  the  disclosure  of  God's  Attributes,  and  of  our  own  Char- 
acter and  Responsibility  before  Him— All  Things  concerning 
God,  Christ,  and  the  Soul's  Eternal  Life  or  Death  foreshown 
in  the  Writings  of  Moses,  and  graduallydemonstrated  through 
the  whole  Scriptures  of  God  by  the  Witness  of  the  Spirit— The 
Bible  our  infallible  Chronometer  and  Compass,  for  Time 
and  Eternity,  that  we  may  keep  all  the  Words  of  this  Law 
—The  Key-words  for  the  Boxing  of  this  Compass 7 

III— IV. 

infallible  authority  of  the  Pentateuch:  its  language 

AND    books   a    five-fold    KEY    TO    THE    SUCCESSIVE 
SCRIPTURES. 

The  Pentateuch  our  only  Divine  infallible  Authority,  for  all  our 
Knowledge  of  Creation  and  Redemption  —The  seeming  Con- 
tradictions, and  the  Means  of  understanding  them,  from 
Eternity  to  Eternity,  in  God's  Light 15 


via  Contents. 


The  gradual  self-interpreting  and  accumulating  Power  of  Reve- 
lation, from  the  Old  Testament  to  the  New — The  Eternal 
Spiritual  Meanings  and  Teachings  of  the  Words  for  Life, 
Death,  Hell,  and  the  Grave,  Expiation,  Atonement,  Sin, 
Sacrifice,  Holiness,  Bedemption,  and  the  eternal  Judgment 
of  Men  according  to  their  Ghai'acter  in  this  World 20 

Y,— VI. 

THE   WHOLE   OLD    TESTAMENT   AND    ITS    TEACHINGS   DBAMA- 
TIZED    BY    CHRIST,    AND    INTERPRETED. 

Stalactites  of  Homer's  Genius  in  the  Caves  of  Pluto — The  Power 
of  a  classical  Paganism — The  Light  of  David's  Psalms — Power 
of  internal  Evidence— The  great  shining  Passages  of  the  Old 
Testament  dramatized  by  Christ 36 

Truths  for  Eternity  as  well  known  by  Inference  as  by  Miracles 
— Christ's  own  Method  of  Reasoning  good  enough  for  us — 
The  necessary  absolute  Certainty  of  God's  Words  for  an 
abiding  Faith  in  Him 41 


VII,— YIII. 


THE    SILENCE    OF    GOD,    ITSELF    A    DIVINE    REVELATION. 

Teachings  by  the  Silence  of  God — A  dividing  firmament  in  the 
Scriptures  between  half-truths  and  whole,  and  between  False- 
hood and  divine  Truth — Immortalilj'  of  the  Soul,  and  a  Be- 
lief in  the  future  Life  and  Betribution,  known  in  ancient 
Egypt  amidst  Darkness,  but  revealed  to  the  Hebrews,  in  a 
pure  and  holy  Light — Reasons  for  the  Beserve  of  divine 
Bevelation — God  would  not  sanction  the  Traditions  of  Men, 
nor  of  a  darkened  or  defiled  Conscience 44 

The  assured  gracious  Presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  with  the  Word 
— Demonstrations  in  the  Fifth  Chapter  of  John's  Gospel — 
Object  and  Evidence  of  Miracles — Personal  Experiments  re- 
quisite for  all  spiritual  Proof .• 51 

IX,— X. 

DEMONSTRATIONS    IN    THE    MACHINERY    AND     REASON 
OP    A    WATCH. 

Consequent  Infallibility  and  Independence  of  the  Word  above 
all  human  Testimony— Illustrations  from  the  Machinery  of 
the  Watch — The  Ai'gnment  from  Chance  and  Atheism;  the 
Argument  from  God  to  Man ;  the  Answer  from  Man  to  God .  60 


Contents.  ix 


Christ's  testimony  covers  all  the  Scriptures— Man's  infallible 
personal  Experiment  is  in  Prayer — Consequences  of  Pro- 
testing God's  Drafts  from  Time  to  Eternity 77 


XI— XII. 


NAPOLEON  S     THOUGHTS     ABOUT    CHRIST     AND     HIS    ElIPIRE 
OF    INFINITE    LOVE. 

Thoughts  of  Napoleon  and  Kousseau  concerning  Christ — Christ 
the  God-Man,  and  His  spiritual  Kingdom  au  Empire  of  Lovo 
in  the  Soul  and  for  Eternity — Forgiveness  of  Sins  and  the 
Power  of  Miracles  in  Christ,  the  Demonstration  of  God  man- 
ifest in  the  Flesh         84 

This  Manifestation  progressive,  both  in  the  Human  and  Divine; 
in  the  Claim  and  Demonstration  of  Divine  Attributes;  in  the 
equal  Demonstration  of  human  Guilt,  sinful  Habit,  and  De- 
spair, unless,  forgiven  and  regenerated — Blasphemy  of  the 
Man  of  Sin  and  Son  of  Perdition,  assuming  the  holy  Infal- 
libility, Omniscience,  and  forgiving  Power  of  the  Son  of 
God 89 

XIII— XIY. 

CHRIST    OUR    LIFE.       DEATH    SW.ALLOWED    UP    EST    VICTORY    BY 
HIS    DEATH    FOR    US. 

Christ  alone  our  Eternal  Life,  dwelling  in  our  Hearts  by  Faith — 
Our  Lawgiver  and  King,  Creator,  Judge,  Advocate,  and  for- 
giving Saviour,  all  in  One — The  successive  Terraces  of  these 
demonstrated  Glories  in  the  Prophecies  of  Isaiah 97 

Intuitions  of  the  People  and  Teachings  of  the  Law  of  God  com- 
bining with  the  Light  of  divine  Projihecy— Death  swallowed 
up  in  Victory  by  our  forgiving  Lord  and  God — Forgiveness 
the  most  absolute  Proof  of  Deity,  and  the  greatest  Obligation 
of  Gratitude  from  Man  to  his  Redeemer— If  Mankind  were 
not  lost,  no  need  of  ever  being  found — But  no  Fear  of  God,  if 
no  Hope  of  Salvation 102 

XY— XYI. 

Christ's  army  of  the  witnesses   and  teachers  from 

PROPHECY    to     its    FULFILMENT. 

Foreshadowing  of  the  Appearance  of  Christ  in  the  World — These 
Realities  of  Experience  and  Warning,  the  Grounds  of  His 


X  Contends. 


Appeal  to  Marikind— The  great  disciplinary  Instruction  and 
Experience,  arising  from  the  Knowledge  of  an  Existence  and 
Eesponsibility  beyond  the  Grave — Presumption  and  Despair 
the  two  Extremes  of  Temptation  and  Guilt,  to  be  provided 
against — Who  shall  lead  Christ's  Army  of  Witnesses?    David 

and  Paul 113 

Treatment  of  the  Claims  of  Christ  by  the  Jews — Their  Posses- 
sion already  of  the  Power  and  the  Rules  of  correct  Reason- 
ing fi'om  their  own  JScriptures,  acknowledged  as  God's  Word 
— Forgiveness  of  Sin  impossible  but  by  God  only — The  As- 
sumption of  its  Power  by  Man  a  Blasphemy  against  God  and 
tbr-  divine  Spirit — Any  Experiment  beyond  this  Life  impos- 
sible, and  this  Men  know  beforehand 122 


XYII— XVIII. 

FORGIVENESS   BY   CHRIST    THE   ALL-CONTROLLING   EVIDENCE. 

Character  of  Christ,  and  Experience  of  spiritual  Healing  and 
Forgiveness  by  Him,  the  central,  all-controlling  Evidence  of 
Christianity — The  Combinations  of  Promises  and  Warnings; 
co-extensive  with  Eternity — God's  alarm-bells  of  Death,  and 
Jubilee  Chimes  of  Salvation 130 

A  spiritual  and  Eternal  Kingdom  of  Grace  and  Glory  demon- 
strated— AH  Nations  are  to  call  Him  blessed,  and  the  whole 
Earth  to  be  filled  with  His  Glory — The  demonstration 
of  Infinite  Love  is  that  also  of  Infinite  Blessedness  and 
Power  in  Heaven  and  on  Earth,  from  Everlasting  to 
Everlasting 136 


XIX,— XX. 

Christ's  use  of  the  scriptures  the  rule  of  all  true 
criticism,  and  theology. 

The  Temptation  of  the  Son  of  God  in  the  Wilderness,  the  first 
explanatory  Narrative  in  the  Gospels — Its  Connection  with 
the  Transfiguration  and  the  Walk  to  Emmaus — The  divine 
Necessity  for  Christ,  It  is  Written 142 

Position  of  Satan,  as  the  Tempter,  Accuser,  and  Enemy  of  Man- 
kind— Position  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  the  Difierence  between 
the  Methods  of  Satan  and  those  of  Modern  Infidelity — The 
Power  of  a  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord." 152 


Contents.  xi 


XXI— XXII. 

CHAKACTEEISTICS    OF    DIVINE    INSPIRATION    SETTLED    BY 
CHRIST. 

Characteristics  and  Limitations  of  Divine  Inspiration,  settled  by 
Christ — Its  Definitions  and  Possessions  from  Genesis  to 
the  Apocalypse — Amount  of  Christ's  Testimony  on  the 
lowest  Computation — Steps  in  the  Histoiy  of  the  Tempta- 
tion— Final  Demonstration  wrought  out  by  that 161 

Demonstration  from  the  Temptation  completed  by  Gethsemane 
and  the  Death  of  the  Cross — The  Limitations  of  Christ's 
Omnipotence  by  the  Absoluteness  of  His  whole  divine  and 
human  Nature — His  own  Work,  as  appointed  by  God's  "Word 
— The  Blessedness  of  the  Apostolic  Participation  in  His 
Sufferings — Suffering  with  Him,  to  be  also  glorified  to- 
gether  ■. 169 


XXIII— XXIV. 

THE    RESURRECTION    AND    WALK    TO    EMMATJS. 

Argument  of  the  Narrative  of  the  Resurrection:  1.  Of  Certainty; 
2.  Variety;  3.  Cougruity;  4.  Forgiveness  and  Assured  Sal- 
vation, as  in  Paul's  Testimony  in  1  Cor.  xv. — It  is  weitten 
can-ies  this  Triumph  through  Eternity 178 

The  Walk  to  Emmaus,  and  its  Key  to  the  whole  Body  of  the 
Scriptures 184 


XXV,— XXVI. 

THE   DESPAIR   AND    RESTORATION    OF   THE    DISCIPLES. 

Temporary  Despair  of  the  Disciples  an  inevitable  first  Eesult  of 
our  Lord's  Death  upon  the  Cross — The  divine  Presence  and 
Prayer  alone  prevented  its  Continuance — The  Intercessions 
and  the  Spirit  of  Christ  enlightened  and  preserved  their 
Souls 197 

The  whole  divine  Preparation  completed  for  the  Apostles' 
Preaching  and  Teaching  concerning  Christ  out  of  the  Scrip- 
tures— Then  the  Propylteum  built  by  Christ  for  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles,  and  the  Epistles  Accompanying  and  Follow- 
ing— The  absorbing  and  triumphant  Power  of  Faith  and 
Love  and  Apostolic  Zeal  and  Faithfulness 204 


xii  Contents. 


XXVII, -XXYIII. 

Christ's  ministry  of  suffering  love. 

Power  of  the  great  Personal  Revelation  after  this  Survey — The 
divine  Preparations  for  it — The  infinite  Privilege  and  Happi- 
ness of  the  Ministry  of  suffering  Love 219 

God's  Method  of  Demonstration,  personal,  experimental,  soul- 
renewing,  beatifying,  transfiguring,  and  consonant  with  our 
Nature;  destined  in  Christ  to  be  the  Witness  of  His  Infinite 
Love,  Power,  and  Glory^Vastuess  of  our  Lord's  Exposition 
of  the  Scriptures 225 


XXIX— XXX. 

VASTNESS    OF   CHRISt's   EXPOSITION    OF   THE    SCRIPTURES. 
NO    ANCHORAGE    IN    UNCERTAINTIES. 

"In  all  the  Scriptures  the  Things  concerning  Himself" — The 
Sweep  and  Thoroughness  of  this  Proposition — Christ  demon- 
strated it  while  Himself  on  Earth — No  Attempts  at  the  Break- 
ing of  His  Will,  no  Case  left  for  Chancei-y,  or  conflicting  Can- 
ons of  Councils — The  whole  known  Volume  of  the  Bible,  and 
its  Documents,  God's  Vouchers,  and  His  alone 231. 

Sufficiency  of  our  Evidence— No  Anchorage  in  Uncertainties,  for 
Eternity — God's  Mercy  not  hidden  in  Obscurities,  but  He 
sets  His  Bow  in  the  Clouds — The  very  Proverbs  of  this 
World  are  Prophecies  of  the  next 237 

XXXI— XXXII. 

LANGUAGE   AND    LAWS    OF    FAITH    AND    EXPERIENCE. 

Questions  and  Conclusions  of  Experimentalists — "But  they 
don't  come  back  to  teU." — John  Foster  and  S.  T.  Coleridge 
— No  Uncertainties  in  the  Gospel,  but  only  immutable 
Things,  in  which  it  was  impossible  for  God  to  lie — Testi- 
mony of  John  and  Paul 241 

Promulgation  of  Law  in  Nature— Language  and  Laws  of  Faith — 
The  Experiment  of  Time  one  and  final;  the  Invitation  and 
Acceptance  of  Divine  Grace;  the  Death  of  Death  and  Hell's 
Destruction  through  Christ;  and  the  Beginning  of  the  Life 
Eternal  in  Him 246 


Contents.  xiii 


XXXIII— XXXIV. 

A    PLENARY    INSPIRATION    NECESSARY    FOR    THE    REVELATION 

OF     SIN     AND    ITS     ETERNAL     CONSEQUENCES. 

The  Kevelation  of  Sin  and  its  conseqiiences,  considered  as  a  cen- 
tral Proof  of  the  plenary  verbal  Inspii-ation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures     253 

The  infallible  Inspiration  demonstrated  by  the  Nature  of  the 
Truths  revealed;  and  by  the  Saviour's  Words;  and  by  the 
Consequences  of  idle  Words 258 


XXXY— XXXYI. 

CHRIST   THE  "LORD    OF    THE    SABBATH.       THE    NAZARENE 
CRITICS    OF    HIS    FIRST   SERMON. 

The  Law  of  the  Sabbath,  with  our  Lord's  Dominion  over  it, 
Himself  its  Soul,  and  the  Gospel  to  the  Poor  forever  in  it, 
demonstrate  a  verbal  Inspiration — Christ's  first  Sermon  in 
Nazareth 266 

Qualifications  of  the  Nazarenes  as  the  highest  literary  Crit- 
ics      277 

XXXVII— XXXVIII. 

HUMILITY    BEFORE    GOD,    THE    PERFECTION     OF    REASON. 

A  plenary  verbal  Inspiration  necessary  to  sustain  the  Appeals  of 
Christ  to  the  Old  Testament  and  Moses 2S7 

Eeferences  to  Reason  and  Conscience  in  the  Sight  of  God — Hu- 
mility before  God  the  only  Security  of  Reason  in  the  Ex- 
amination of  God's  Word— God  the  Teacher,  Reason  the 
Learner— The  Prayers  of  Bacon,  the  Experience  of  Cole- 
ridge—Lightfoot  on  the  Source  of  Luke's  Gospel  by  direct 
Inspiration — Men  casting  Anchor  out  of  the  Stern,  and  wish- 
ing for  the  Day,  meanwhile  Dragging  and  Drifting 295 


XXXIX— XL. 


NOT    YE    THAT    SPEAK,     BUT    THE    SPIRIT    OF    YOUR 
FATHER   IN    YOU. 

Arguments  of  Ullmann,  Tholuck,  Luther,  and  Bengel,  on  the 
Use  and  Province  of  Reason,  and  the  Necessity  of  a  verbal 


xiv  Contents. 


Inspiration — In  what  Sense  is  the  Bible  breathed  forth  from 

God  ? — Argument  of  Alexander  on  Isaiah 307 

Demonstration  from  the  closing  Chaptei's  of  Luke's  Gospel — Cei'- 
tainty  of  the  Old  Testament  Canon— The  Septuagint  Trans- 
lation— Philo  and  Josephus  — Eichhorn's  Historic  Investi- 
gation— Christ's  Verification  and  Use  of  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures — "Not ye  that  speak,  but  the  Holy  Ghost" — Nei- 
ther extemjjore  SiDcakiug  nor  Writing,  in  Christ's  inspired 
Messengers 314 


XLI,— XLII. 

PROF.     HTJXLEy's     argument,     HOW     MUCH     MAY    HANG 
UPON     A    WORD. 

Argument  from  the  Importance  of  Particles — Justification  of 
God  and  Man  bj'  Words — Paul's  Argument  of  the  Kes- 
urrection 324 

Prof.  Huxley  on  the  Epiglottis,  and  what  constitutes  Man — The 
Argument  of  Evolution  applied  to  the  Inspiration  of  Words 
— No  such  Thing  as  accidental  or  extempore  Speaking . .  330 

XLIII— XLIV. 

THE    SPIRIT    OF   TRUTH    WILL    GUIDE   YOU   INTO    ALL    TRUTH. 
NOT   DOUBTS,    NOR    OBSCURITIES,    BUT    CERTAINTIES. 

Exactness  of  divine  Information  concerning  Spiritual  law — "If 
it  were  not  so,  I  would  have  told  you  " — Regeneration,  the 
greatest  of  Miracles,  dependent  on  Words — Lord  Bohng- 
broke  on  "Calvin's  Institutes." 337 

Verbal  Inspiration  and  particular  Providence — The  Habit  of 
Conjectures  a  Habit  of  Scepticism — Evil  of  turning  Ob- 
scurities into  Enemies,  for  Satan's  Work — Anecdote  from 
Dr.  Witherspoon— An  infallible  divine  Inspiration  neces- 
sary for  any  right  Beasoning  ...    343 

XLV— XLVI. 

PROGRESSIVE  ILLUMINATIONS  BY  WHAT  THE  SPIRIT  SAITH  UNTO 
THE    CHURCHES.       PRECIOUSNESS   OF   A   CHILDLIKE   FAITH. 

Half  Truths  whole  Errors— Absolute  Safety  only  in  the  divine 
Record — Plato's  Cave,  and  the  poet  Goethe  in  the  Dungeon 
— Divine  Certainty  in  all  that  the   Spirit  saith  unto   the 


Contents.  xv 


Churclies— Necessity  of  a  Fog-horn  for  mere  human  Lan- 
guage— Paul  Speaking  with  Tongues,  and  Praying  for  the 
Power  of  Interpretation— What  Men  owe  to  God,  a  be- 
lieving  Heart — What   God  owes   to  Men,   infallible   divine 

Truth 356 

Progressive  Illuminations  in  God's  Kingdoms  of  Nature  and 
Grace — The  Combinations  of  incalculable  Minuteness  and 
Grandeur  in  Word  and  Works  —Illustrations  from  polanzed 
Light  and  the  Connections  of  the  Physical  Sciences — Nec- 
essary to  Truth,  a  single  Eye,  a  Child-like  faith,  a  trans- 
parent spiritual  Atmosjihere,  and  God  in  Christ  shining 
through  it — The  Climate  of  the  Soul — Science  itself  dem- 
onstrates a  verbal  divine  Inspiration 367 


XLVII— XLYIII. 

THE    WITNESS    OF    THE    SPIRIT,    THE     HIGHEST    HEAVEN    OF 
SCIENCE. 

Various  Ways  of  spoiling  and  despoiling  Preachers  by  Philoso- 
phy and  vain  deceit— The  Bondage  of  Tradition  and  Doubt- 
Suspicion  and  Tickets  of  Leave — Archbishop  Usher  on  the 
Witness  of  the  Spirit 380 

The  Forgery  of  a  spiritual  Work  impossible,  the  very  ideas  of 
Spirit  and  Foresight  being  unknown — Its  Fulfilment  and 
Proof  as  impossible  as  a  Demonstration  of  Non-existence 
from  Eternity — All  scientific  Truth  the  Servant  of  Christ, 
and  Christianity  the  highest  Heaven  of  Science 392 


XLIX— L. 

ALL     god's    WORDS     CREATIVE    FOR    CHRISt's    REDEEMING 
WORK. 

The  Vesture  dipped  in  Blood — The  final  Argument  and  its  Per- 
fection—Vision and  Inspiration  of  the  Word  of  the  Lord 
to  Ezekiel — The  Divine-human  and  Human-divine,  indis- 
putable    399 

The  New-creating  Life  of  divine  Inspiration  as  Inhering  in  the 
incarnate  Personality  of  Christ  the  Saviour— God's  Words, 
Old  and  New  Testament,  creative  Pencils  of  Light,  em- 
ployed by  the  Holy  Spirit  for  Christ's  redeeming  Work.  404 


xvi  Co7ttents. 


LI— LIL 

DISCOVERIES    OF    THE   SOUL   IN   PRAYEK.       THE   BIBLE    A 
child's    book    FOREVER. 

The  Soul  led  and  instructed  by  Supiolicatious— Universal  Truth 
discovered  and  recorded  by  Prayer — Testimony  of  ancient 
liturgies — Dilierence  between  living  Branches  and  dead  Clubs 
— The  seven  Sons  of  Sceva,  their  athletic  Christianity,  and 
its  Results 410 

The  Bible  the  most  natural  and  supernatural  of  all  Books — 
Divine  Love  its  Substance,  divine  Light  its  Garment — In- 
finite in  Mystery  and  Simplicity,  microscopic  in  InteUigenco 
and  Care — A  reason  for  the  tiniest  Flowers  and  Thorns  in 
the  Wilderness — A  child's  Book  for  all  Ages 415 


LIII,— LIY. 

AN     INFALLIBLE    INSPIRATION     THE    ONLY     TRUE    HISTORIC 
FAITH.       CONJECTURAL    CRITICISMS    GOOD    FOR    NOTHING. 

Complexity,  Minuteness,  Infinitude  and  indestructible  Unity  of 
the  Argument — Its  Power  of  Anchorage  the  Same  in  all  ages, 
but  accumulating  through  all  — Cloiids  and  Tempests  of  Sin, 
Misery  and  Mystery,  evolving  in  Eainbows  of  pardoning 
Mercy  and  sanctifying  Grace  and  Love — Faith  in  the  Word 
of  God  as  infallible,  the  only  true  historic  Faith — Internal 
Harmonies  and  Laws  of  Adjustment 424 

The  Price  of  the  Fabrication  of  Legends,  Forgeries  and  Myths 
instead  of  the  Divine  Word— The  Proverb  of  "the  Devil  to 
pay"  illustrated — Bishop  Hoadly  on  the  Kingdom  of  Christ 
and  of  Conscience— Conjectural  Criticisms  and  Clinkers  of 
Thoiight — The  Way  to  Doubting  Castle — Consequences  of 
the  Fog  within  and  Breakers  without — Dr.  Franklin's  Vow 
to  build  a  Lighthouse — Walk  in  the  Light  as  Christ  gives 
it,  and  go  not  out  of  the  King's  Highway — The  Power  that 
worketh  in  you,  able  to  carry  you  through 433 


INTRODUCTION. 


The-Broad  Church  Translators,  Bevisers,  Interpre- 
ters, and  Progressive  Theologians  of  our  age  seem  dis- 
jDOsed  to  retreat  from  the  known  severities  of  Divine 
Revelation,  into  what  they  please  to  call  its  "  merciful 
OBSCURITIES."  But  is  that  a  merciful  process  of  revela- 
tion, which  conceals  from  the  vision  of  faith  an  actual 
danger  ?  Would  it  be  merciful  in  constructing  a  chart 
for  an  unknown  sea,  into  which  a  navigator  was  ap- 
j)ointed  to  enter,  if  the  hydrographer  concealed  the 
known  sunken  reefs,  the  hidden  sand-banks,  the  dan- 
gerous rocky  coasts  ?  Would  it  be  merciful  in  a  Law- 
giver to  render  the  penalties  against  crime  so  uncer- 
tain, and  obscure,  that  the  criminal  might  hope  they 
would  be  infinitely  smaller  than  the  letter  of  the  code 
ever  intimates,  or  its  strict  equity  permits  ?  Is  not  the 
certainty  announced,  the  greatest  mercy,  and  the 
clearness  and  explicitness  the  greatest  safeguard  for 
the  sinner?  What  is  to  keep  a  man  from  falling  into 
crime,  if  the  law  itself  is  uncertain  in  regard  to  its 
guilt,  or  how  can  the  Judge  be  justified  in  executing  a 
l^enalty,  both  in  degree  and  duration,  unknown?  He 
can  go  no  further  than  the  law  allows;  if  he  does  it  is 
iniquity.  The  perfection  of  law  is  its  equity  and 
clearness,  and  of  government,  its  justice,  benevolence. 


xviii  Introduction. 


and  stability.  In  the  case  of  the  Divine  Government 
its  foundations  and  its  laws  are  just  and  right;  but 
they  can  be  neither,  if  concealed  from  the  knowledge 
of  the  subjects  of  their  operation,  who  are  to  be  pro- 
tected and  guided  by  them. 

Accordingly  in  God's  Law-book  the  heaviest  of 
penalties  are  denounced  againd  those  who  conceal  the 
truth.  If  they  had  stood  in  the  gap,  and  been  faithful 
to  God's  truth,  souls  would  have  been  saved.  They 
have  concealed  and  falsified  it,  and  theirs  is  the  re- 
sponsibility.     "  For  THE  WOBD   THAT  I  HAVE  SPOKEN,  THE 

SAME  SHALL  JUDGE  YOU  in  the  last  day."  It  reveals  God 
now  to  the  knowledge  of  His  creatures;  it  will  justify 
God  then,  in  the  righteousness  of  His  sentences.  "  Is 
God  unrighteous  who  taketh  vengeance  ?  God  forbid ! 
for  then  how  shall  God  judge  the  world? "  If  He  may 
not  righteously  avenge  the  law,  he  cannot  righteously 
reveal  it.  The  question  is  tremendous  and  transcend- 
ent against  aU  the  false  philosopliies  of  sin  and  its 
penalty;  in  demonstration  also  of  the  infinite  benevo- 
lence of  the  whole  Divine  Law,  the  justice,  power  and 
beatifying  influence  and  intent  of  which  are  to  make 
aU  creatures  fit  and  worthy  to  glorify  God,  and  enjoy 
Him  forever.  Laws  cannot  be  cruel,  the  object  and 
perfection  of  which  are  the  foundation  of  a  holy 
character,  a  divine  nature,  and  eternal  blessedness  in 
God.  Any  thing  less  than  that  object,  any  thing  dif- 
ferent, would  be  impossible,  if  God  is  Love;  and  if  He 
is  not  Love,  He  is  not  God.  These  are  postulates  of 
all  right  reasoning,  from  man  to  God. 

"  When  will  men  learn, 
The  outward  by  the  inward  to  discern, 
The  inward  by  the  Spirit  ?  " 


Introduction.  xix 


THE    SPIRIT    OF   JESUS    THE   WHOLE    SOUL    OF    THE   BIBLE. 

The  wliole  argument  and  demonstration  of  Chris- 
tianity are  in  this,  A  roRGrvTisra  God  and  Saviour;  and 
for  soul-satisfying  assurance  in  this  divine  axiom  of 
Eternal  Life,  and  of  conquering  power  by  it,  every 
man  must  make  his  own  experiment,  or  he  cannot 
believe,   but   abideth   in   darkness.     Therefore   "God 

HATH    SHINED    IN    OUR    HEARTS    to    givC    the    LiGHT    of    the 

Knowledge  of  the  Glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus 
Christ  " :  every  word  in  that  sentence  being  a  law  and 
progression  of  Light  and  Love,  as  the  Eternity  of 
God  and  Immortality  of  man  are  a  key  to  the  mean- 
ing of  every  thought  in  the  Bible.  "I  know  that 
whatsoever  God  doeth,  it  shall  be  forever:  also  He 
hath  set  Eternity  in  their  heart,  and  hath  made  ev- 
ery thing  beautiful  in  His  time.  And  God  requir- 
eth  that  which  is  past."  Every  instruction  and  com- 
mand, every  warning  and  joromise,  all  deterring  and 
alluring  truths,  bear  the  burden  of  God's  mercy  for 
man's  good.  The  whole  climate  of  the  Bible  is  Eter- 
nity, and  its  atmosphere  the  Firmament  of  Love, 
The  Lord  God  Almighty  and  the  Lamb  are  its  Tem- 
ple; and  the  glory  of  God  doth  lighten  it,  and  the 
Lamb  is  the  light  thereof. 

All  that  is  revealed  is  given  that  we  might  be  saved. 
"  The  Lawgiver,  able  to  save,  and  to  destroy." — James 
iv.  12.  "I  that  speak  in  righteousness,  inoHTY  to, 
SAVE." — Is.  Ixiii.  1.  "And  these  things  I  say,  that  ye 
MIGHT  BE  SAVED." — Johu  V.  34.  "He  that  converteth 
the  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  way  shall  save  a  soul 
FROM  DEATH."— James  V.  20.  "The  Son  of  Man  is 
come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost." — Matt. 


XX 


Introduction. 


xviii.  11,  and  Luke  xix.  10.  This  very  word  saved 
demonstrates  the  peril  of  an  everlasting  destruction. 

Let  the  childlike  inquirer  take  simply  his  concord- 
ance, and  study  in  their  connection,  the  words  for 
heaven  and  hell,  darkness  and  light,  salvation  and 
perdition,  saved,  lost;  life,  death;  reward  and  pun- 
ishment; time  and  eternity;  and  everywhere  he  will 
find  God  in  Christ,  as  at  the  beginning,  so  in  the 
new  creation,  dividing  the  light  from  the  darkness,  com- 
manding us  to  walk  in  the  light,  as  He  is  in  the  light, 
declaring  that  we  can  see  light  only  in  His  light,  and 
pronouncing  a  woe  upon  them  that  put  darkness 
for  light  and  light  for  darkness.  The  pestilence  and 
the  fool  "walketh  in  darkness,"  and  the  power  of 
Satan's  strategy  and  kingdom  is  the  power  of  dark- 
ness, and  its  consummation  the  blackness  of  dark- 
ness forever.  The  Higher  Literary  Criticism,  in  its 
handling  and  circulation  and  endorsement  of  sus- 
picions and  doubts,  is  but  a  Doubting  Castle  kept 
by  Giant  Desj)air,  even  with  Christian  and  Hope- 
ful sometimes  in  its  dungeons. 

To  remove  the  doubts  of  men  by  the  certainties  of 
Scripture,  and  not  to  measure  or  obscure  the  certainties 
of  Scripture  by  the  doubts  and  conjectures  of  men,  is 
the  ivork  of  a  true,  believing  student  of  God's  Woi'd. 
From  Genesis  to  the  Apocalypse  there  is  ceaseless 
progress  in  Theology,  an  infinite,  ever-growing  dem- 
onstration of  the  sinfulness  and  misery  of  man,  and 
the  loving  attributes  and  saving  mercies  of  the  Al- 
mighty, till,  as  promised  in  Is.  xxx.  6,  and  Zech. 
xii.  8,  concerning  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  and  those 
that  wait  on  His  Word,  "  the  light  of  the  moon 
shall   be   as  the   light  of  the  sun,  and  the   light  of 


Introduction.  xxi 


the  sun  sevenfold  as  the  light  of  seven  days,  and 
he  that  is  feeble  shall  be  as  David,  and  the  house 
of  David  as  God."  And  so,  "The  isles  shall  wait 
for  His  Law,  and  His  coming,  who  is  the  Life  and 
Light  of  all  nations;  to  open  the  blind  eyes,  and 
to  bring  out  of  the  prison-house  those  that  sit  in 
darkness  and  in  the  shadow  of  death.  I  will  make 
DARKNESS  LIGHT  BEFORE  THEM."  "Then  shaU  the  deaf 
hear  the  words  of  the  Book,  and  the  eyes  of  the 
bUnd  shall  see  out  of  obscurity  and  out  of  darkness, 
and  the  meek  and  the  poor  shall  rejoice  in  the  Holy 
One  of  Israel,  for  the  scorner  is  consumed."  Most 
mercifuUy  consumed;  for  "when  the  scorner  is  pun- 
ished the  simple  is  made  wise."  "  Smite  a  scorner, 
and  the  simple  wiU  beware."  "But  a  scorner  seeketh 
wisdom  and  fiadeth  it  not."  A  vast  portion  of  human 
literature  concerning  the  Bible  is  the  literature  of 
scorners,  cavillers,  evil  surmisers,  lawyers;  taking 
away  the  key  of  knowledge,  shutting  up  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  against  men,  entex'ing  not  in  them- 
selves and  forbidding  them  that  are  entering. — Matt, 
xsiii.  13. 

the  certainties  of  one  divine  code,  aijd  only  one, 

proclaimed    by    OUP    LORD. 

The  criticism  of  conjecture  and  suspicion  disorgan- 
izes the  very  faculty  of  s^Du-itual  discernment.  It 
makes  every  miracle  of  truth  rvin  the  gauntlet  be- 
tween Hues  of  magicians  with  tractors  of  diabolic 
power  to  draw  away  the  sacred  magnetism,  stealing 
from  the  soul  the  fire  and  faith  of  a  divine  insi^ira- 
tion.  The  progress  of  these  critics  across  the  sacred 
pages,  denying  the  supernatural,  is  like  that  of  snails 


XXZl 


Introduction. 


over  the  leaves  of  flowers;  tlieir  path  is  traced,  and 
their  work  characterized,  by  the  fihn  of  the  sHme 
left  behind  them.  "And  as  for  my  flock,"  says  the 
AVord  of  God  in  Ezekitl  xxxiv  19,  "they  eat  that 
which  ye  have  trodden  with  your  feet;  and  they  di'ihk 
that  which  ye  have  fouled  with  your  feet."  But  the 
work  of  benevolence  and  truth  is  to  make  plain 
paths  for  the  soul,  "  lest  that  which  is  lame  be  turned 
out  of  the  way,  and  lest  any  man  fail  of  the  grace 
of  God."— Heb.  xii.  13,  15. 

"And  behold,  a  certain  lawyer  stood  up,  and 
tempted  him,  saying,  Master,  what  shall  I  do  to 
inherit  eternal  life?  He  said  unto  him.  What  is 
written  in  the  Law  ?  How  readest  thou  ?  " — Luke 
X.  25,  26.  The  Law  meant  the  Pentateuch,  the  books 
of  Moses,  the  constant,  unmistakable  designation  of 
THE  Law.  "Did  not  Moses  give  you  the  Law,  and 
none  of  you  keepeth  it."  The  lawyer  knew  this, 
and  made  answer  accordingly,  out  of  Deuteronomy 
and  Leviticus;  and  our  Lord  said  unto  him,  "Thou 
hast  answered  right."  And  so  in  Isaiah  ix.  19,  20, 
"  To  the  Law  and  to  the  Testimony !  Should  not 
a  people  seek  unto  their  God?  For  the  living  to 
the  dead  ?  If  they  speak  not  according  to  this  word, 
there  is  no  light  in  them."  Here  the  reference  cannot 
possibly  be  to  any  other  authority  than  the  Law  of 
God  by  Moses.  And  so,  eight  hundred  years  later, 
"Moses  of  old  time  hath  in  every  city  them  that 
preach  him,  being  read  in  the  synagogues  every  Sab- 
bath day." — Acts  xv.  21. 

"  Seek  ye  out  the  Book  of  the  Law,  and  read." 
"What  Book,  and  what  Law?  Which  of  the  codes, 
Elohistic  or  Jehovistic,  and  which  of  the  Redactors 


Introduction.  xxiii 


of  Documents?  "With  wliom  took  he  counsel,  or 
who  hath  directed  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  ?  "  "  Re- 
member YE  THE   Law  of  Moses  My  servant,  which   I 

COMMANDED  UNTO  HIM  IN  HoREB  FOR  ALL  ISRAEL,  WITH 
THE    STATUTES    AND    JUDGMENTS." Mai.    iv.    4. 

Only  one  Law  and  Testimony  was  ever  referred  to 
by  our  Lord;  one  code,  one  covenant,  one  passover 
one  atonement,  one  approach  to  God,  one  laio  of  Love. 
The  whole  Law  was  fulfilled  in  that  one  word,  given 
by  Moses  in  Leviticus  xix.  18,  and  Deuteronomy  vi. 
5,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God;  and  thy 
neighbor  as  thyseK; "  and  Christ's  words  illuminated 
the  unity  and  Mosaic  authorship  of  the  whole,  when 
He  said,  "  On  these  two  commandinents  hang  all  the 
law  and  the  prophets." — Matt.  xxii.  40.  The  demon- 
stration of  the  Mosaic  era,  and  none  later,  was  perfect. 

CHRIST  NEVER  SANCTIONED  ANY  CODE  BUT  GOd's  ONE  CODE 
OF  LOVE,  BY  MOSES. 

Christ  never  quoted  any  other  code,  nor  referred 
to  any  other  lawgiver  than  Moses.  Neither  did  any 
of  His  disciples,  or  the  Apostles.  "  This  is  that  Hoses 
in  the  wilderness,  who  received  the  lfv^ng  oracles,  Xoyia 
Z(^vTa,  to  give  unto  us." — Acts  vii.  37,  38.  "Master, 
Moses  said ;  Master,  Moses  ivrote  imto  us;  "—Matt.  xxii. 
24,  and  Luke  xx.  28;  and  the  writing  was  in  Deuter- 
onomy XXV.  5.  If  it  had  not  been  Moses,  but  a  later 
authority,  in  a  fifth  code,  somewhere  down  in  the 
centuries  of  anonymous  piety  and  fraud,  the  cavilling 
enemies  of  our  Lord  would  have  known  it.  If  there 
had  been  even  imagined  a  "Deuteronomist,"  other  than 
Moses,  according  to  the  nomenclature  of  the  Higher 
Criticism,   the    Sadducees   would   have   shuffled   that 


xxiv  Fntroductioji. 


card.  If  the  texts  quoted  by  our  Lord  had  been  in 
a  document  not  of  Moses'  writing,  or  if  there  had 
been  any  suspicion  or  conjecture,  not  to  say  theory, 
of  its  not  having  been  Moses,  the  Pharisees  also 
would  have  fenced  with  that  weapon. 

But  neither  in  the  histories  or  proj)liecies  of  the 
Old  Testament,  or  interpretations  of  God's  Law  in 
the  New,  is  there  aught  of  fact  or  reference  from 
which  the  publication  or  existence  of  any  code  of 
divine  laws,  other  than  the  Pentateuch,  or  after  the 
time  of  Moses,  or  by  any  other  lawgiver  than  Moses, 
can  be  proved,  or  even  conjectured.  The  su^Dposition 
of  some  half-dozen  successive  and  separate  codes,  one 
for  priests,  another  for  princes,  another  for  the  peo- 
ple, another  for  or  from  the  prophets,  evolved  in 
separate  and  distant  ages,  by  anonymous  voices  of 
unnamed  and  unknown  authors;  codes  supi^lementary, 
Elohistic,  Jehovistic,  with  documents  amendatory, 
as  the  contrivances  or  outgrowths  of  new  patches 
on  old  garments,  is  no  better  than  an  atavistic  ut- 
terance of  Isaiah's  "  luizards  that  peep  and  mutter."  It 
is  the  ventriloquism  of  jugglers;  an  insj)iration  from 
the  entrails;  throwing  the  voice  sometimes  afar  off, 
sometimes  in  the  air,  sometimes  in  a  bog  with  marsh 
lights;  it  is  Jannes  and  Jambres  withstanding  Moses, 
"  doing  so  with  their  enchantments,"  to  obscure  and  adul- 
terate, with  second-hand  imitative  blood  and  frogs,  the 
real  miracles,  and  thus  distress  and  daze  the  Pharaonic 
spectators.  Cleavers  of  dead  wood,  themselves  as  dead 
to  true  spiritual  life  and  meaning,  as  the  punk-wood 
itself,  out  of  which  they  spHt  their  torches. 

The  processes  of  this  school  of  criticism,  under 
the  guise  of  free,  fearless,  scholarly  expurgation  and 


Introductio7i.  xxv 


reconstruction,  do  but  "murder  to  dissect"  the  Scrip- 
tures; disfiguring  them  almost  as  thoroughly  beyond 
idejitity,  as  the  slayer  did  the  body  of  Dr.  Parkman, 
so  that  the  only  proof  of  the  corjnis  delicti  was  the 
jaw  of  his  false  teeth  left  in  the  furnace.* 

NO    PEH^ATE    OK    ARBITRARY    INTERPRETATION. 

Sinful  men  are  always  suspicious  of  God,  as  if  He 
had  some  private,  selfish  ends,  Hke  then-  own.  This  is 
a  remarkable  acknowledgment  of  the  consciousness 
that  a  jDrivate,  personal,  self-seeking  habit  of  character 
is  wrong,  is  unjust  to  others;  that  such  a  character 
cannot  co-exist  with  disinterested  benevolence,  which 
is  and  ought  to  be  the  ruling  characteristic  of  hohness 
and  truth. 

Now,  ajDplying  this  conviction,  which  is  just,  to  the 
revelation  of  God's  will  given  us  in  the  Scriptures,  let 
the  Sceptic  ask  himself,  what  j)ossible  private  object 
can  God  have  ?  The  Creator  of  all  beings  and  things, 
the  Possessor  and  Governor  of  the  Universe !  "  If  I 
were  hungry,  I  would  not  tell  thee !."  Can  He  do  any 
thing  but  out  of  infinite  love?  out  of  a  necessary  re- 
gard to  His  own  loving  nature,  not  sacrificing  one  at- 
tribute to  another,  nor  permitting  one  to  contradict 
another;  not  justice  to  contradict  love,  nor  love  to  be 
opposed  to  justice.     Can  He  possibly  conceal  or  mis- 

*  "The  latest  spiritualistic  critical  fraud,  which  has  spread 
from  Tabingen,  through  a  part  of  the  Evangelical  Church;" 
"the  patched-up  legendary  view  of  mingled  traditions,  with 
later  compilations." — See  Lange  on  Genesis,  Scribner's  edition, 
pp.  31,  99,  107,  etc.  "It  reduces  the  Scriptures  not  only  to 
fragments,  but  to  fragments  of  fragments,  jumbled  in  confusion." 
See  Prof.  Tayler  Lewis,  on  the  assumed  Jehovistic  and  Elohis- 
tic  distinctions,  pp.  99  to  108. 


xxvi  Introduction. 


represent  any  of  .His  attributes  or  permit  them  to  bo 
misrepresented,  or  falsified,  or  dishonored  ? 

And  when  a  supreme  regard  to  His  own  glory  is 
described  as  the  rvile  of  Jehovah  in  all  His  dealings, 
can  there  possibly  be  any  other  just,  benevolent,  and 
righteous  rule  than  this?  For  in  the  knowledge  of 
that  glorj^  and  an  active  subordination  to  it,  and  re- 
joicing in  it,  lies  the  whole  and  sole  possibility  of  order 
and  happiness  under  the  Divine  Government.  For 
nothing  can  be  harmonious  or  blessed,  that  is  not 
accordant  with  God's  own  infinite  goodness  and  holi- 
ness, God's  own  self-respecting  holy  will,  and  the  man- 
ifestation of  it.  Nothing  can  be  blessed,  or  a  means 
of  blessing  others,  that  opposes,  or  defies,  or  falsifies 
God's  will;  or  that  obscures  His  glory,  or  is  not  con- 
formed thereto,  or  prevents  it  from  being  seen  and 
understood,  or  causes  it  to  be  mistaken. 

All  the  manifestations  of  God  to  His  intelligent  crea- 
tures are  for  their  good,  that  they  may  be  partakers  of 
His  own  holiness  and  happiness.  How  can  it  possibly 
ever  be  otherwise  ?  And  the  giving  of  His  own  Son  to 
suffer  and  die  the  just  for  the  unjust,  that  He  might 
bring  us  to  God,  that  we  might  be  heirs  of  God  and 
joint  heirs  Avith  Christ,  by  the  adoj)tion  of  sons,  is 
such  a  proof  of  love,  such  an  infinite  conquest  of  our 
suspicions,  and  such  a  winning  of  oiu'  confidence,  that 
the  very  imagination  of  it  covild  have  come  only  fi'om 
its  reality  as  a  divine  revelation;  and  the  I'evelation  of 
it  is  a  miracle  of  demonstration  greater  than  the  exist- 
ence of  the  visible  universe.  Certainly,  whoever  con- 
fesses Christ  before  men  will  be  filled  with  all  the 
fullness  of  God's  love  and  blessedness  forever  and  ever; 
for  in  that  confession  from  the  heart  consists  the  most 


Introduction.  xxvii 


perfect  and  glorifying  service  of  gratitude  and  love 
we  can  ever  render. 

"  There  shall  this  he  told  for  a  memorial  of  her."  This, 
and  the  record  of  the  offering  of  a  poor  widow  among 
many  rich  men,  and  the  mention  of  a  cup  of  cold  water 
by  the  Lord  Jesus,  are  proofs  of  the  infinite  value  of  a 
very  little  faith  and  love,  and  how  all  the  greatest  things 
and  creatures  in  the  universe  are  put  to  theu-  best  ser- 
vice in  the  production  of  such  love.  Two  mites  that 
make  a  farthing !  Scientific  research  discloses  the  fact 
that  mountain  ridges  vast  enough  for  the  foundations 
of  continents  are  the  work  of  countless  millions  of  in- 
visible insects,  ages  on  ages  building  up  and  fossilizing 
their  substance  and  their  habitaticTas.  Now  suppose 
that  every  one  of  these  animalculse  were  intelligent, 
capable  of  thought,  and  animated  in  every  part  of  its 
work  by  the  single  desire  to  bring  an  offering  to  God, 
to  do  something  that  might  glorify  God,  and  remain  a 
manifestation  of  His  goodness.  The  architecture  would 
be  an  intelligent  musical  temple,  vibrating  within  and 
without  the  melodies  of  love  and  praise.  Eveiy  two 
mites  of  coral,  and  all  the  rising  seawalls,  atolls,  and 
mountain  ridges,  would  be  as  sacred  as  the  thoughts 
of  angels,  would  be  more  precious  and  glorious  than 
continents  of  diamond  and  gold.  Such  will  the  whole 
universe  of  God  be  found  forever,  as  the  new-created 
work  of  His  Divine  Love,  and  of  the  faith  of  each  re- 
generated creature,  confessing  and  adoring  that  Love  in 
Christ,  when  the  whole  people  of  God  shall  be  delivered, 
every  one  that  shall  be  found  written  in  THE  BOOK. 
"And  they  that  be  wise  shall  shine  as  the  brightness 
of  the  firmament;  and  they  that  turn  many  to  right- 
eousness, as  the  stars  forever  and  ever." 


xxviii  Introduction. 


CERTAINTIES,    NOT    CONJECTURES,    THE    BUSINESS    OF    A 
TRUE    CRITIC. 

This  therefore  is  the  j)rimal  canon  of  a  just  criti- 
cism, imperative,  obligatory,  namely,  to  accept  and  press 
THE  ScKiPTURES,  just  as  Christ  and  His  apostles  pressed 
them;  not  donbtingly,  but  by  manifestation  of  the 
truth ;  not  apologetically,  but  aggressively ;  "  to  speak 
boldly,  as  we  ought  to  speak ;  "  not  for  a  condescending 
patronage  of  divine  truth,  but  for  universal  conquest. 
"  Bringing  into  captivity  every  thought  to  the  obedi- 
ence of  Christ;  casting  dovs^n  every  high  thing  that 
exalteth  itself  against  the  knowledge  of  God."  "All 
ScRiPTUEE  IS  INSPIRED  OF  GoD,  and  able  to  make  all  men 
wise  unto  salvation,  through  faith  that  is  in  Christ 
Jesus."  All  Scripture;  for  the  righteous  prepossession 
of  the  Son  of  God  is  in  it,  for  all  mankind,  from  the  cra- 
dle to  the  grave.  "  For  all  the  promises  of  God  in  Him 
are  yea  and  amen,  unto  the  glory  of  God  by  us."  Paul 
the  Positivist  wrote  all  these  commanding,  constituting, 
aU  embracing  postulates,  who  wrote  the  fifteenth  of 
First  Corinthians,  and  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  of  the 
Second  Corinthians.  And  he  wrote  these  divine  ut- 
terances, not  as  if  there  were  any  grounds  of  doubt  in 
regard  to  them,  or  internal  suspicions,  whereby  to 
ticket  them,  as  perhaps  bad  bills,  needing  to  be  tracked 
back  to  the  forgers;  but  for  conquest,  for  payment  in 
gold  at  the  Savings  Bank  of  Christ  for  sinners.  It  was 
the  central  power  of  legislating  Love,  by  the  Spirit  of 
Christ,  that  coined  these  testimonies,  with  infinite  con- 
fidence, not  by  permission  or  vote  of  "  many  author- 
ities," but  the  One  Supreme  God,  and  by  His  oath, 
swearing  by  Himself,  because  He  could  swear  by  no 


Litrochtction.  xxix 


greater,  and  would  have  all  men  justified  by  faith  in 
His  Son,  and  in  none  other  way;  that  all  should  honor 
the  Son  even  as  they  honor  the  Father. 

The  Word  of  God  in  Christ,  is  one  and  the  same, 
equally,  in  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament,  having 
in  it  all  the  light,  meaning,  and  purpose  of  human 
salvation,  and  aU  the  instrumentalities  for  that  work 
of  regeneration  in  the  soid,  that  the  Divine  Word, 
the  Son  of  God,  became  flesh  to  finish: — all  that  was 
possible  for  the  life  of  the  soul,  and  therefore  for  its 
conviction  of  sin  and  its  awakening  unto  prayer,  and 
its  spiritual  resurrection  from  the  death  of  sin,  and  its 
new  creation  in  the  image  and  nature  of  God  in  Christ; 
all  that  might  contribute  to  the  beginning  or  comple- 
tion of  that  work;  all  the  possible  influences,  sugges- 
tions, electricities,  magnetisms,  illustrations  of  God's 
attributes,  and  of  man's  dependence  on  God;  God's 
holiness  and  man's  sinfulness,  God's  mercy  and  man's 
despair  and  hope,  God's  thoughts  towards  man,  and 
man's  right  way  of  thinking  and  beheving  and  earnest 
striving  after  God. 

COAL   MEASURES    IN    THE    OLD;    INSPIRED    MINERS  IN  THE  NEW. 

The  boundless  coal  measures  of  Light,  Love  and 
Fire,  in  the  Old  Testament,  were  prepared  for  the 
working  of  companies  of  inspired  miners  in  the  New. 
"The  Lord  gave  the  Word;  great  was  the  company 
of  those  that  published  it.  Thou,  O  God,  hast  pre- 
pared of  Thy  goodness  for  the  poor.  The  God  of 
Israel  is  He  that  giveth  strength  and  power  unto  His 
people."  This  68tli  Psalm  is  of  infinite  Messianic 
grandeur.  "  Thou  hast  ascended  on  high.  Thou  hast 
led  captivity  captive;  Thou  hast  received  gifts  for 
men;  yea,  for  the  rebellious  also,  that  the  Lord  God 


XXX  Introduction. 


might  dwell  among  them."  Compare  Eph.  4:  8-16. 
"  Unto  every  one  of  us  is  given  grace,  according  to 
the  measirre  of  the  gift  of  Christ,  according  to  the 
riches  of  His  glory,  strengthened  with  might  by  His 
Spii'it  in  the  inner  man,  speaking  the  truth  in  love, 
to  grow  up  in  all  things  into  Him  who  is  the  Head, 
even  Christ." 

Known  unto  God  are  all  the  workings  of  His  Word 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world.  All  the  remotest 
flashes  of  light,  and  jjossible  revelations  of  it,  for  the 
production  of  belief  in  God,  and  love  to  Him  and  ad- 
oration of  Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth; — all  jDOSsible 
miraculous  new  creations  by  the  Word,  by  what  we 
call  accidental  fallings  of  it  on  the  soul,  meetings  of 
the  soul  with  any  part  of  it,  anywhere  among  savages 
or  cultured  infidels;  in  words  and  suggestions  and  un- 
accountable impressions,  though  seemingly  driven  like 
dead  autumn  leaves  by  the  wind,  and  lost,  yet  carry- 
ing into  the  soil,  possibly,  some  hidden  seeds  some- 
where; and  if  any,  then  enough,  in  infalUble  after- 
growth and  reproduction,  for  the  life  of  some  whole 
continent.  Given,  the  Word  of  God  from  Genesis  to 
the  Aj)ocalypse,  for  man's  eternal  life  in  God,  and  it 
is  impossible  to  restrict  any  part  of  it,  by  men's  canons 
of  criticism,  denying  its  infallible  inspiration,  or  the 
possible  intentions  and  apj^lications  of  it,  by  the  om- 
niscient God  that  gave  it,  and  His  Holy  Spirit  that 
inspu-ed  and  accompanies  its  thoughts  and  words,  it 
may  be  for  a  hundred  thousand  generations,  to  the 
end  of  the  world.  God  must  foresee  the  action  of  its 
words,  as  well  as  its  orbs  of  thought,  as  surely  as  He 
must  have  ordered  and  foreseen  the  atoms  and  action 
of  the  elements,  the  way  in  which  Hght  is  parted. 


Introduction.  xxxi 


the  velocity  with  which  it  travels,  the  power  of  every- 
one of  its  rays,  the  chemical  activities  that  it  creates 
and  governs,  the  laws  of  life  it  combines  and  executes; 
the  organization  of  an  eye  to  receive  it,  the  creation 
of  a  mind  and  reason  to  adore  its  proofs  and  illustra- 
tions of  the  essence  and  attributes  of  Grod. 

We  say,  from  Genesis  to  the  Apocalypse.  The  glory 
of  the  English  literature  of  the  17th  century  is  in  the 
floods  of  light  jDOured  through  its  volumes  of  poetry 
and  prose  upon  the  spiritual  meaning  and  Divine  in- 
spiration of  the  Scriptures,  through  the  medium  of  the 
Authorized  Translation  in  our  language,  and  Luther's 
in  the  German.  Bengel  and  Luther,  Tyndale  and 
their  successors,  made  a  Bible  for  the  ploughboys,  and 
therefore  equally  for  the  most  cultured  and  self-ap- 
plauding intellects,  set  together  to  the  study  of  its 
pages,  as  Httle  children  to  the  syllables  of  earliest 
believing  and  imaginative  thought  for  the  saving  of 
the  soul.  "A  deliberate  sad  eye,  with  leisure,"  said 
the  most  illustrious  of  those  Biblical  scholars,  John 
Lightfoot,*  in  his  rules  for  a  student  of  the  Holy 
Scrij)tures,  "  might  bring  all  the  New  Testament,  both 
for  words  and  sense,  from  the  Old.     And  this  I  ever 

HELD  THE    SUREST   WAY    TO    EXPOUND    BOTH.       God    HimSclf 

hath  taught  us  what  is  the  best  way  to  read,  for  He 
hath  folded  the  two  Testaments  together;  so  that,  as 
the  Law  begins,  so  the  Gospel  ends,  and  as  the  proph- 
ets end,  so  the  Law  begins;  as  if  calling  you  to  look 
still  for  the  one  in  the  other,  Moses  and  EHas  were 
Evangelists.  And  what  did  Christ  ever  do  or  suffer, 
which  you  may  not  see  in  the  Law  and  Prophets,  tra- 
cing Christ  throughout  the  Old  Testament." 
*  Lightfoot's  Works,  vol.  ii.  pp.  43-47. 


xxxii  Introd2Lctio7i. 


THE    PERFECTION   OF    OUR    KNOWLEDGE    AND    DISCIPLINE 
GRADUAL    IN    CHRIST    TO     THE    END. 

In  the  gospels  we  are  with  Jesus;  we  follow  Him  in 
the  way;  we  talk  with  Him,  ask  Him  questions,  hear 
His  words,  wonder  at  His  parables  of  wisdom,  His 
miracles  of  power.  We  behold  the  proofs  of  His 
divine  nature.  His  deity  as  the  Son  of  God,  and  one 
with  the  Father,  His  omnipotence,  omniscience,  the 
universe  under  Him,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  His, 
the  eternal  world  of  being,  and  all  its  awards  to  the 
righteous  and  the  wicked  His.  AH  these  realities, 
these  discoveries  come  out,  as  we  travel  with  Him; 
we  learn  them  gradually,  just  as  His  disciples  did. 
The  proofs  of  His  divinity  are  as  jjositive  and  plain 
as  of  His  humanity;  we  behold  one  day,  one  hour, 
the  Son  of  Man,  the  next  the  Son  of  God.  The  facts 
and  seals  of  both  natures  drop  out  as  artlessly,  as 
spontaneously,  as  naturally,  as  the  motions  and  prat- 
tle of  a  child.  The  most  sublime  and  astounding 
announcements  of  His  supremacy  as  Lord  of  all, 
Governor  and  Judge  of  mankind,  possessor  of  domin- 
ion over  all  worlds,  visible  and  invisible,  drop  from 
Him  as  by  accident,  unconsciously,  in  the  midst  of 
discourses  not  at  all  intended  for  a  j^roof  of  His  great- 
ness, nor  the  argument  instituted  for  that,  but  as  it 
were  unawares,  under  the  form  of  man,  a  servant;  the 
infinite  God  giving  utterances,  that  no  human  being 
would  put  in  language,  but  the  moment  they  are 
spoken,  and  the  mind  at  leisure  to  ponder  them,  God, 
not  man,  is  seen  in  them.  One  of  the  earliest  of  such 
instances  comes  out  at  the  close  of  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount.     '■^  Many  will  say  to  Me  in  that  day,"  etc.,  "  and 


Introduction.  xxxiii 


then  will  I  prof e?,^  unto  them,  I  never  knew  you;  depakt 
fkom:  Me,  ye  that  work  iniquity.  Whosoever  heareth 
THESE  SAYINGS  OF  MiNE,  and  cloeth  them,  I  will  liken 
HIM,"  etc. 

Then  His  deahng  with  the  Decalogue:  "Ye  have 
heard  that  it  was  said,  But  I  say  unto  you,"  etc.  These 
avowals  of  His  divine  power  and  majesty  were  so  fre- 
quent, and  so  natural,  that  the  impression,  of  them 
grew  as  a  flower  opens,  as  the  sun  rises;  never  start- 
ling or  tremendous,  as  with  the  rending  of  the  rocks, 
or  the  rolling  fires  around  Elijah,  or  the  bush  of 
flame  to  Moses,  but  calmly  as  the  faUing  of  the  dew; 
so  does  the  vision,  the  sense,  the  conviction  of  a  su- 
pernatural, superhuman  Being,  though  in  the  form  of 
man,  the  servant,  in  uttermost  lowhness  of  life,  even 
unto  the  crucifixion,  go  down  into  the  soul.  And  so 
it  carried  the  illuminated  reason  of  the  centurion, 
"Truly  this  was  the  Son  of  God."  And  so  the  sight 
of  Jesus  on  the  cross,  blameless,  dying,  praying  for 
His  murderers,  FcUher,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not 
lohat  they  do !  removed  the  veU  of  darkness  from  the 
dying  thief,  and  the  Holy  Spu-it  breathed  in  his  sotd 
that  wondrous  prayer  of  faith  and  love,  "  Lord,  remem- 
ber me,  when  Thou  comest  into  Thy  Kingdom !  "  So 
from  the  beginning,  the  vision  carries  us,  and  so 
we  follow  on,  through  the  gospels,  walking  with 
Christ,  beholding  His  glory,  till  we  are  not  only 
prepared,  but  constrained  to  cry  out  with  Thomas, 
"  My  Lord  and  my  Grod ! "  And  with  Stephen,  "  Behold, 
I  see  the  Son  of  Man  standing  on  the  I'ight  hand  of 
God!  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit."  All  this  rev- 
elation, from  the  fii'st  verse  of  Genesis  to  the  last 
word   of  the   Apocalypse,  is   of  the   Powers   of   the 


xxxiv  Introd2iction. 


World  to  come,  for  life  or  death  eternal,  to  the  never 
dying  soul;  and  of  the  Love  of  Christ,  jaleading 
with  us,  that  we  may  not  be  self-banished,  in  a 
sinful  immortality,  from  the  presence  of  the  Son  of 
God  roRE-v^R.  "Amen,  even  so,  Come,  Lord  Jesus, 
come  quickly,  and  dwell  within  our  hearts  by  faith, 
that  death,  and  sin  the  sting  of  death,  may  be  swal- 
lowed up  in  victory ! " 


GOD'S  TIMEPIECE  FOR  MAN'S  ETERNITY. 


o>*ic 


I. 


CHRIST  THE  CENTRAL  LIGHT,  LIFE,  AND  PROOF  OF 
THE  WHOLE  BIBLE— ALL  OUR  KNOWLEDGE  OF  IT 
DEPENDENT  ALONE  ON  HIS  DIVINE  PERSONALITY 
—OUR  BIBLE   FOR   ETERNAL  LIFE. 

The  Bible  its  o^tst  witness,  is  a  received  proverbial 
expression,  yet  so  little  realized,  analyzed,  believed, 
acted  on,  that  it  might  have  been  catalogued  as 
among  Coleridge's  "bedridden  truths  in  the  dormi- 
tory of  the  soul."  God  can  have  no  witnesses,  but 
only  confessors.  "  Where  vyast  thou  when  I  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  earth,  when  the  morning  stars  sang 
together,  and  aU  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy? 
Where  is  the  way  where  light  dweUeth  ?  Wast  thou 
then  born  ?  "  Christ  alone  is  the  Author  and  Finisher 
OF  Faith,  and  His  Word  the  substance  and  the  evi- 
dence of  things  not  seen.  He  receives  not  testimony 
or  endorsement  from  man. 

We  learn  from  Him  alone,  and  by  His  enlightening 
of  our  understandings,  as  to  all  things  written  in  all 


2         God' s  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

the  Scriptureii,  in  Moses  and  the  Prophets,  and  the 
Psahns,  that  the  Word  of  God  is  a  growth,  Toy  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  not  a  mere  creation  by  Almighty 
Power; — that  its  living,  growing  evolution  and  prog- 
ress, according  to  the  necessities  of  man  and  the 
mercies  of  God,  because  of  man's  fall  into  sia,  and  his 
consequent  hereditary  progression  in  wickedness,  are 
demonstrated  in  itseK,  even  as  the  growth  of  an  oak 
is  registered  and  proved  by  the  successive  rings  of  its 
annual  life,  grown  and  recorded  in  the  sections  of  the 
trunk.  "Thou  hast  magnified  Thy  Word,  above  all 
Thy  name." — Ps.  cxxxviii.  2.  "My  name  is  in  Him." 
Ex.  xxiii  21.  An  incarnate  personal  prophesying  Life 
and  Light.— Deut.  xviii.  18,  and  John  i.  4. 

The  Word,  thus  begun,  perfected,  and  finished 
in  Christ,  is  in  Him  forever  living  and  abiding, 
as  manifest  and  complete  as  the  I  am  before  Abra- 
ham, the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever;  Em- 
manuel, God  with  us,  Christ  the  Woi'd,  the  Way,  the 
Truth,  the  Life,  the  Revealer  of  God,  the  Creator 
and  Eedeemer  of  man;  Chi-ist  inhabiting  Eternity, 
investing  Himself  with  humanity,  in  form  and  nature; 
born  and  manifested  in  the  flesh,  suffering,  dying, 
rising,  ascending  into  Heaven,  and  upholding  all 
things  by  the  Word  of  His  power: — All  this  is  The 
Word,  all  this  union  of  impossibilities  in  Time,  and 
yet  indisputable  Eternal  certainties;  a  temporal  Eter- 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,         j 

nity,  and  an  Eternal  To-day;  Christ  the  Letter  and 
the  Spirit,  Christ  the  written  Gospel  and  the  unwrit- 
ten glory; — All  this  in  a  visible,  legible  volume,  a  per- 
fect oneness,  "  a  whii'lwind,  a  cloud,  and  a  fire  infold- 
ing itseK  " ;  loosed  and  ojoened  by  God  at  the  beginning, 
sealed  by  Christ  at  the  close;  a  volume,  as  known  and 
perfectly  finished,  as  the  Virgin  Mother  with  her  Babe, 
by  the  Holy  Ghost  ujDon  her,  and  the  power  of  the 
Highest  overshadowing  her; — and  afterwards  the  at- 
tendant ministries  of  worshijoping  and  singing  angels, 
prophets,  priests,  and  devout  inspired  men,  waiting 
for  the  Consolation  of  Israel,  and  beholding  the 
Lord's  Christ,  by  the  Sj)irit,  in  the  Temple.  This  is 
the  Word,  the  Bible,  the  Volume  written  of  Me,  an 
Eternal  Now,  past,  present,  and  to  come,  an  Orb  of 
Love,  Light,  Life,  Power,  and  Law,  self-existent,  om- 
nipresent, forever  settled  in  heaven,  forever  on  earth, 
OUR  Bible;  God  manifesting  Himself  to  us,  and  us  to 

OURSELVES    IN    HiS    SIGHT. 

All  this  supernatural  overwhelming  array  of  Eter- 
nities in  Time,  the  Attributes  of  God,  the  "Word,  made 
flesh,  yet  in  a  record  so  natural  and  simple,  so  artless 
and  sublime,  so  convincing  and  irresistible,  that  in 
the  reading  of  it,  in  gazing  at  the  glory,  we  can  only 
exclaim  with  Thomas,  "  My  Lord  and  my  God !  "  and 
with  Isaiah,  "  Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  King,  the  Lord 
of  Hosts !  "  and  with  John,  "  That  which  was  from  the 


4         God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eterjiity. 

beginning,  wliicli  we  have  heard,  which  we  have  seen 
with  our  eyes,  which  we  have  looked  upon,  and  our 
hands  have  handled,  of  the  Word  of  Life !  "  and  with 
Christ  Himself  upon  the  cross,  "  It  is  finished !  "  Noth- 
ing can  be  put  to  it,  nothing  taken  from  it.  Heaven 
and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  My  Word  shall  not 
pass  away. 

This  is  that  witness  of  God,  which  He  hath  testified 
of  His  Son,  and  that  witness  of  the  Son,  which  He 
hath  testified  of  God  the  Father.  God  speaking  to 
us  by  His  Son  demonstrates  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures  as  His  Word;  and  the  appearance  and 
testimony  of  His  Son  throw  the  same  God-given 
demonstration  over  the  whole  New  Testament  as 
over  the  Old.  And  so  the  whole  volume  is  in  all 
ages  a  finished  spiritual  orb  and  unity  of  divine  in- 
spiration, as  indisputably  the  work  of  God  as  the  sun 
in  the  heavens. 

What  infinite  subhmity,  and  assertion  of  supreme, 
self-existent  truth,  authority  and  power,  in  all  these 
introductions  of  the  Saviour  to  the  souls  of  aU  man- 
kind! The  openings  up  of  divine  revelation  in  the 
Old  Testament,  in  the  Gospels,  in  the  Epistles,  and 
in  the  Apocalypse,  are  as  the  successive  breakings  of 
heaven's  seals  of  Hght  and  fire  by  the  hand  of  God 
Himself. 

Read  and  compare  the  first  five  verses  of  Genesis, 


God's  Ti7nepiece for  Mans  Eternity.         5 

the  1st,  2d,  and  110th  Psahns,  the  first  five  verses 
of  the  Gospel  of  John,  the  first  seven  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans,  the  first  five  of  that  to  the  Galatians, 
the  first  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  and 
the  opening  chapter  of  "the  "Word  of  God  and  the 
Testimony  of  Jesus  "  in  Patmos.  And  then,  as  a  cen- 
tral instance,  take  the  august  and  magnificent  open- 
ing of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews:  "God,  who  at 
sundry  times,  and  in  divers  manners,  spake  in  time 
past  unto  the  fathers  by  the  j)i'ophets,  hath  in  these 
last  days  spoken  unto  us  by  His  Son;  whom  He  hath 
appointed  heir  of  all  things,  by  whom  also  He  made 
the  worlds;  who  being  the  brightness  of  His  glory,  and 
the  express  image  of  His  person,  and  upholding  all 
things  by  the  Word  of  His  power,  when  He  had  by 
Himself  purged  our  sins,  sat  down  on  the  right  hand 
of  the  Majesty  on  high." 

"It  is  the  Spirit  that  beareth  witness,  because  the 
SpiRrr  is  Truth.  He  that  believeth  what  the  Spirit 
saith  hath  the  witness  in  himseK;  for  this  is  the  wit- 
ness of  God  which  He  hath  testified  of  His  Son.  He 
that  beheveth  not  God  hath  made  Him  a  liar,  because 
he  believeth  not  the  record  that  God  gave  of  His  Son." 
"  He  that  hath  the  Son  hath  life,  and  he  that  hath 
NOT  THE  Son  of  God  hath  not  life." — 1  John  v.  11,  12. 

FoRGrvENESs  AND  Eternal  Life  IN  Christ  are  the 
purpose  and  fulfilment  of  God's  record,  in  the  Law 


6        God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eteriiity. 

and  Gosjjel;  the  whole,  and  only  Scriptures  Pro- 
phetic and  Historic,  of  "Grod  manifest  in  the  flesh, 
justified  in  the  Spirit,  seen  of  angels,  preached  unto 
the  Gentiles,  believed  on  in  the  world,  received  up 
into  glory."  The  Scrij^tures  demonstrated  in  Jesus 
Christ  alone,  as  Gon  over  all,  blessed  forever.  And 
recorded  in  the  Volume  written  concerning  Him,  Old 
and  New,  "  that  believing  we  might  have  life  through 
His  Name." — -John  xx.  31.  "For  whatsoever  things 
were  ivritten  aforetime,  were  written  for  our  learning, 
that  we,  through  patience  and  comfort  of  the  Script- 
tfRES  might  have  hope.  All  Scripture  is  given  by 
insj)iration  of  God,  and  is  able  to  make  thee  wise 
unto  Salvation,  through  faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus." 
For  the  law  by  Moses  is  not  one  thing,  and  grace 
and  truth  by  Christ  another;  but  both  are  equally 
the  love  and  inspiration  of  the  Father  and  the  Son, 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  taking  of  the  things  that  are 
Christ's,  and  showing  them  to  the  soul,  for  the 
assurance  of  Eternal  Life  in  Him.  "  Being  the  Author 
OF  Eternal  Salvation,  He  by  one  offering  hath  per- 
fected forever  them  that  ai'e  sanctified;  having  by 
His  own  blood  obtained  Eternal  Redemption  for  us, 
that  we  might  have  Eternal  Life  in  Him."  The  Tes- 
tament of  Life  ends  with  the  last  words  of  God  to  man 
in  the  Apocalyj)se,  "  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  be  with  you  all.     Amen." 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 


11. 


THE  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THE  THINGS  SECRET  AND 
THOSE  REVEALED— THE  FIRST  DISCLOSED  ATTRI- 
BUTES OF  GOD,  AND  THE  FIRST  WORDS  FOR  GOD 
AND  ETERNITY— EVERYTHING  IN  A  DIVINE  REVE- 
LATION DEPENDENT  ON  THEM  — ALL  THE  FIRST 
THINGS  CONCERNING  GOD  AND  CHRIST  AND  THE 
SOUL'S  ETERNAL  LIFE  AND  DEATH  FORESHOWN  IN 
THE  WRITINGS  OF  MOSES— GOD'S  CHRONOMETER 
AND  COMPASS  FOR  TIME  AND  ETERNITY. 

"The  secret  things  belong  unto  the  Lord  our 
God:  but  those  which  are  revealed  belong  unto  ms 
and  to  our  children  forevek,  that  xve  may  do  all  the 
xoords  of  this  law." — Deut.  xxix.  29.  It  is  from  the 
outset  a  revelation  from  God,  weYL  known  and  ad- 
mitted, of  such  a  nature  as  to  last  forever,  that  by 
means  of  it  we  may  keep  God's  law. 

"  For  what  the  law  could  not  do,  in  that  it  was  weak 
through  the  flesh,  God,  sending  His  own  Son,  in  the 
likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  and  for  sin,  condemned  sin  in 
the  flesh;  that  the  righteousness  of  the  law  might  be 
fulfilled  in  us,  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after 
the  spuit." — Rom.  viii.  3,  4.  The  verse  quoted  from 
Deuteronomy  is  as  a  north  star  in  our  spiritual  firma- 
ment; and  the  eighth  chapter  of  Romans,  and  all  the 


S         God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity. 

planets  in  the  New  Testament,  are  but  as  pointers  to 
it,  that  we  may  do  all  the  words  of  this  law. 

The  Eternity  of  God  and  the  Immortality  of  man  in 
His  image,  the  Holiness  of  God  and  the  sinfulness  of 
man  after  the  fall,  ar^  as  plainly  revealed,  with  all  the 
consequences,  as  a  child's  catechism.  All  the  true 
principles  of  criticism  follow  inevitably; — the  nature 
of  a  divine  inspiration,  the  necessary  infallibility  of  it 
for  man's  guidance,  God's  administration  of  His  own 
government  dependent  on  it,  holiness  and  truth  the 
foundations  of  it,  and  no  true  reasoning  possible  ex- 
cept from  these  j)ostulates.  They  are  summed  up, 
after  more  than  three  thousand  years,  in  the  words 
of  God  to  the  prophet  Ezekiel:  "Behold,  ai.l  souls 
ARE  Mine;  as  the  soul  of  the  father,  so  also  the  soul 
of  the  son  is  Mine:  the  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall 
DIE."  That  the  solemn  everlasting  meaning  and  con- 
sequences of  these  words  were  accepted  and  known 
from  the  beginning  by  the  Jews  is  manifest  from  Ez. 
xxxiii.  10 :  "  If  our  transgressions  and  our  sins  be 
upon  us,  and  we  pine  away  in  them,  how  i^lioidd  ive  then 
live?"  Yea,  and  except  God  in  Christ  shall  give  you 
life,  ye  cannot  live.  There  was  never  a  question  asked 
by  an  inquiring  or  an  unconverted  soul,  that  carried 
its  answer  more  directly  with  it,  for  ourselves  and  for 
oiu'  children. 

It  is  very  remarkable  that  the  first  instance  occur- 


God's  Thnepiece for  Mans  Eternity.         g 

ring  of  the  word  forever  in  the  Bible  (Hebrew,  olam), 
is  found  thus  expressly  referring  to  the  Eternity  of 
God,  and  to  the  sin  of  man  through  the  falsehood  of 
the  "liar  and  father  of  it  from  the  BEomNiNa":  "Ye 
shall  not  die,  but  be  as  gods."  The  dreadful  com- 
ment of  Jehovah  instantly  follows  the  crime ;  and  then 
the  first  step  is  taken  to  save  man  from  its  eternal 
consequences.  Thence  comes  the  known  infinite  mean- 
ing of  the  word  olam;  it  is  the  introduction  of  God's 
Eternity  to  the  consciousness  of  sinful  man. 

After  this,  the  first  examj)le  of  its  use  from  God 
to  Moses  is  in  Ex.  iii.  14,  15 :  "  This  is  My  name  for- 
ever {olam) ;  say  to  the  children  of  Israel,  I  AM  hath 
sent  me  to  you."  Thus  was  established,  in  the  open- 
ing of  Divine  Revelation,  the  origin  and  spiritual  mean- 
ing of  the  word,  in  God's  own  attribute  of  self-exist- 
ence, Eternity.  Then  in  Ex.  xv.  18,  in  the  song  of 
Mii'iam:  "Jehovah  shall  reign /o?-eDer"  (ohm).  Then 
in  Deut.  xxxii.  40:  "I  lift  uj)  my  hand  to  heaven  and 
say,  I  LIVE  forever  "  (olam). 

These  instances  are  postulates  of  the  absolute  infin- 
itude of  the  word.  AU  lower  applications  of  it  are 
figurative,  in  things  and  seasons  of  time-ivorlds,  gener- 
ations and  Hmited  periods.  But  the  absolute  Eternity 
of  God  is  the  governing  and  defining  power  for  all 
the  relations  and  responsibihties  of  the  soul  to  Him, 
under  all  circumstances.     And  the  Eternity  of  God  is 


10       Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eterjiity. 

the  background  of  all  His  communications,  all  Hia 
laws,  judgments,  institutions,  provisions  for  mankind, 
^'■tliat  ive  may  do  all  the  words  of  this  laiv." 

This  wonderful  text  foreshadows  and  ordains  every- 
thing to  come ;  the  conclusion  of  the  Book  of  Ecclesi- 
astes,  five  hundred  years  later,  is  in  it:  "Fear  God, 
and  keep  His  commandments,  for  this  is  the  whole 
duty  of  man.  For  God  shall  bring  every  work  into 
judgment,  whether  good  or  evil."  Here  are  Im- 
mortality, Eternity,  and  Eternal  Life  in  God,  for 
man,  by  the  relations  of  the  Divine  Law,  for  the 
ETERNAL  KEEPING  OF  IT.  The  whole  of  Divine  Rev- 
elation is  here,  as  when  God  said,  "Let  there  be 
light,  and  there  was  light ; "  the  same  light  at 
the  beginning,  and  in  the  whole  universe,  as  when 
reservoired  in  orbs,  or  prismatized  in  rainbows,  for 
times  and  seasons,  for  covenants,  emergencies,  and 
successive  enlarging  dispensations,  down  to  the  com- 
ing of  God  incarnate  in  Christ.  A  more  perfect  de- 
scription of  a  spiritual  Timepiece  fok  Eternity  could 
not  be  imagined  than  this  verse  of  Moses.  Chronom- 
eter and  comj)ass  answering  each  to  other  in  the  con- 
science and  heart  of  man,  "that  we  may  do  all  the  words 
of  this  law." 

For,  "He  hath  made  everything  beautiful  in  his 
time:  also  He  hath  set  Eternity  (olam)  in  their  heart." 
Eccles.  iii.  11,  17.     Chronometer  within,  and  compass 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       1 1 

without,  for  man's  Immortality  and  Eternity;  intended 
for  and  answering  to  the  intuitions  and  ideas  in  man's 
original  creation  in  the  image  of  God.  "So  teach  us," 
was  the  prayer  of  Moses,  "to  number  our  days,  that 
we  may  apply  our  hearts  to  wisdom."  "Lord,  make 
me  to  know  mine  end,"  was  David's  prayer,  "  and  the 
measure  of  my  days,  what  it  is,  that  I  may  know  how 
frail  I  am,"  and  may  take  action  accordingly.  The 
measure  is  for  Life  Everlasting,  and  so  is  the  number. 

A  believing  mariner  under  the  teachings  of  Moses 
would  know  how  to  box  this  comiMSS  for  Eternity. 
And  so  Christ  told  the  Jews,  after  four  thousand 
years'  possession  of  it,  and  of  the  prophetic  instruc- 
tions as  to  its  meaning  and  use,  "  Had  ye  believed 
Moses,  ye  would  have  beheved  Me,  for  he  wrote  of 
Me.  But  if  ye  beheve  not  his  writings,  how  shaU 
ye  believe  My  words  ?  " — John  v.  46,  47. 

Within  and  without,  God's  Word  and  Spirit;  Eter- 
nity in  their  hearts;  chronometer,  and  compass !  And 
such  power  and  minuteness  of  inference,  such  infinite 
sweej^  round  the  whole  horizon  of  our  being,  with 
indexes  for  Immortahty  and  Eternity,  all  the  words  of 
this  law,  that  we  may  know  the  Way  of  Life  in  God 
forever!  This  spiritual  compass  has  more  flaming 
lifeUnes  and  points,  if  the  heart  consulting  it  is  steady 
toward  God,  as  the  needle  to  the  pole,  than  the  most 
experienced  sea  captain  could  ever  trace,  or  commit 


12       God's  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity. 


to  memory  from  the  magnetic-figiu*ed  circle,  for  the 
guidance  of  his  ship.  "Every  one  of  Thy  righteous 
judgments  endvireth  forever.  They  stand  fast  forever 
and  ever;  His  covenant  forever.  Concerning  Thy  tes- 
timonies, I  have  known  of  old  that  Thou  hast  founded 

THEM  FOREVEK." 

"Jehovah,  God,  forever."  —  Gen.  xxi.  33.  "God 
of  Israel  from  eternity  to  eternity." — Ps.  xli.  14. 
"  The  glory  of  Jehovah  shall  endure  forever." — Ps. 
civ.  31.  "Thy  righteousness  is  forever." — Ps.  cxix. 
142.  "And  forever  all  the  judgments  of  Thy  righteous- 
ness."— cxix.  160.  "Blessed  be  the  Lord  God  of  Is- 
rael from  everlasting  to  everlasting,  from  olam  to 
olam." — I  Chron.  xvi.  36.  And  so  repeated  in  Isaiah, 
Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  Daniel,  the  word  and  its  eternal 
significations  are  indisputable;  always  in  reference  to 
the  attributes  of  God,  and  therefore  unmistakable. 
"God,  the  God  of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh." — Num. 
'xvi.  22,  and  xxvii.  16. 

In  the  historical  and  proj)hetic  books  these  august 
declarations  are  equally  and  infinitely  distinct  and 
sublime.  The  attributes  of  the  word  alwaj's  corre- 
spond with  the  attributes  of  God,  and  all  things  are 
ordered  and  established  in  unwavering  deference  to 
the  "Word,  which  is  the  one  abiding  certainty  for  the 
universe,  and  is  so  clothed  with  the  divine  authority 
and  majesty,  that  the  quality  of  piety  acceptable  to 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       ij 

God  is  just  this:  "To  this  man  will  I  look,  even  to 
him  that  is  poor  and  of  a  contrite  spirit,  and  who 
trembleth  at  My  Word.  Hear  the  Word  of  the  Lord, 
ye  that  tremble  at  His  Word."  For  all  things  in  Time 
and  through  Eternity  are  ordered  by  it. 

Even  if  only  the  Pentateuch  were  before  us,  in  cen- 
nection  with  the  gospels,  we  may  see  how  the  back- 
ground of  all  God's  deahngs  with  man,  and  man's 
with  God,  is  Eternity;  how  self  and  sin  make  man 
suspicious  of  God,  and  unfit  to  judge  Him  in  any- 
thing; how  self  in  view  makes  man  intellectually  blind 
as  to  God's  purposes  and  ways;  how  suffering  is  the 
crucible  of  faith  and  the  refiner  of  evidence;  how  God 
is  supreme  in  all  human  history,  and  how  an  infalli- 
ble divine  inspiration  is  necessary  to  disclose  God's 
thoughts,  God's  presence  and  jDlan,  God's  will  and 
law,  to  judge  rightly  of  which  Faith  must  be  the  guide 
of  Reason;  for  doubt  and  suspicion  morally,  darken 
a  man's  mind  intellectually,  and  self-interest  makes 
him  almost  unconsciously  a  perjured  jxu^or,  a  false 
critic. 

We  see  how  the  history  of  the  Hebrews  is  a  tapestry 
of  God's  weaving,  and  must  be  either  the  record  of 
infallible  divine  inspiration  or  a  whole  lie;  for  it  could 
come  only  from  God's  j)lans  in  execution,  and  God 
only  could  reveal  those  plans,  with  their  eternal  mean- 
ing and  issues;  and  could  demonstrate,  as  in  Isaiah, 


j^       Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

Jeremiali,  and  Ezekiel,  where  and  how  the  temporal 
events  take  up  men's  souls  and  run  into  eternity;  and 
are  proved  by  God's  light,  making  every  knot  and  line 
and  crosshne  of  the  tapestiy  a  prophet  for  the  soul, 
and  luminous  as  a  transparency,  revealing  God  and 
man  together. 

Moreover,  in  the  study  of  these  Icey-wordH  of  Eter- 
nity we  learn  to  walk  and  work,  with  fear  and  trem- 
bUng,  because  it  is  God  that  worketh  in  us;  by  mani- 
festation of  the  truth  commending  ourselves  to  every 
man's  conscience  in  the  sight  of  God,  even  as  His  attri- 
butes in  Christ  are  plainly  made  known  to  us.  And 
we  see  how  a  baptism  with  the  infinite  compassion  of 
Jesus  is  necessary  for  the  watchman  of  souls,  and  how 
Christ's  own  loving  Spu'it  alone  can  deal  with  the 
doubt  and  despair  of  agonized  consciences;  how  loy- 
alty to  God's  Word,  like  that  of  Chi'ist,  can  alone 
make  a  man  true  and  faithful  to  man,  and  kind  and 
tender  and  charitable  and  generous,  just  in  proportion 
as  he  is  true.  ,  God's  jjatience  reasons  tenderly  with 
the  sinner,  and  wins  him.  Man's  imj^atience  strikes 
him  and  stuns  him.  The  wrath  of  man  worketh  not 
the  righteousness  of  God,  but  the  righteousness  of 
God  restrains  the  wrath  of  man,  and  causes  it  to 
praise  Him  in  many  adorable  ways  of  His  Eternal 
wisdom  and  grace  in  Christ  Jesus. 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity.      i^ 


III. 


THE  RECORD  OF  CREATION  IN  THE  PENTATEUCH 
OUR  ONLY  DIVINE  AND  DECISIVE  AUTHORITY 
— THE  SEEMING  CONTRADICTIONS,  AND  THE 
MEANS  OF  UNDERSTANDING  THEM,  IN  GOD'S 
WORD,   FOR   ETERNITY. 

The  Eevelation  thus  belonging  to  us  and  to  our 
children  eoeever,  begins  with  the  record  of  Creation  as 
God's  work  in  successive  periods.  It  is  therefore  the  first 
and  highest  decisive  authority  as  to  the  questions 
which  science  is  now  agitating  and  investigating. 
The  only  element  of  uncertainty  is  in  regard  to  the 
just  interpretation  of  the  language;  but  so  far  as 
we  can  ascertain  that,  it  is  the  highest  scientific  as 
well  as  moral  and  theological  authority  that  we  pos- 
sess, or  can  possess.  Wherever  there  is  any  doubt, 
it  is  the  revelation  that  has  the  rightful  precedence, 
and  must  decide. 

The  question,  what  is  the  first  book  of  this  revel- 
ation ?  does  not  rest  upon  man's  testimony,  nor  does 
the  question,  who  was  the  wi'iter  of  it?  It  begins 
as  a  hght  from  God  and  eternity,  with  no  announce- 
ment of  any  human  scribe  or  reporter.  Forever, 
O   Lord,   Thy  Word  is   settled  in  heaven.     It  was 


i6       God's  Timepiece  for  Man's  Etei'iiity. 

reserved  for  Him  who  is  the  Author  and  Finisher 
OF  FAITH  to  estabhsh  infallibly  for  the  knowledge  of 
all  mankind  what  is  the  first  book  of  revelation,  by 
referring  explicitly  to  Genesis,  and  quoting  from  it" 
as  the  Word  of  God.  Our  Lord's  references  to  it, 
and  His  quotations  of  its  words  as  divine  authorit}-, 
demonstrate  the  manner  of  the  Creation  of  Adam 
and  Eve,  as  there  reported,  to  be  absolute  and  un- 
questionable truth.  Those  therefore  who  joroclaim 
that  account  to  have  been  a  fable  do  most  undoubt- 
edly hold  up  to  scorn  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  an 
impostor  and  a  passer  of  counterfeit  money  in  the 
name  of  God.  They  do  this  in  the  face  of  an  ac- 
cumulation of  demonstrative  proof,  both  physical 
and  moral,  of  the  supernatural  truth  and  divine 
personality  of  Christ,  immeasurably  greater  than 
anything  ever  ofi'ered  by  scientific  men  as  to  their 
theories. 

In  the  Word  of  God  there  are  the  same  contrasts, 
diversities,  seeming  contradictions,  and,  ap)plymg  the 
terms  of  natural  science,  "faults "  (that  is,  "  cjisloca- 
tions  or  disturbances  of  strata,  interrupting  the  miner's 
operations "),  as  in  His  works.  There  are  also  anal- 
ogous methods  of  the  differential  calculus,  for  finding 
and  measiuiug  the  actual  differences  and  theii*  mean- 
ing; comparing  spiritual  things  with  spiritual,  and  the 
parts  with  the  whole.     In  the  large  dictionaries  we 


God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity.       ly 

have  illustrations  given  of  "faults"  in  a  mine,  and 
there  are  engravings  presented  of  the  dislocated 
strata,  before  which  the  experimentalist  or  miner  is  at 
fault.  So,  both  in  the  Divine  Providence  and  Word, 
we  are  sometimes  interrupted  by  seams  and  scars  un- 
accountable, and  depths  unfathomable.  Thy  jiidg- 
ments  are  a  great  deep.  In  nature  we  have  the 
mountain  of  granite,  and  quartz,  and  the  gold,  for 
which  we  must  dig,  and  separate  it  from  the  quartz. 
But  the  granite  and  the  quartz  are  as  much  God's 
work,  and  God's  designs  are  in  it,  as  the  gold  itself. 
We  ourselves  can  mix  mud  and  sand,  and  make 
our  own  quarries;  but  we  cannot  make  the  gold,  nor 
the  organizing  principles  and  laws.  We  can  convey, 
express,  and  modify  thought  in  language,  but  we 
cannot  make,  nor  successfully  imitate  or  dissemble, 
a  divine  inspiration  with  its  seals.  None  but  God 
can  create  and  demonstrate  the  inspiration.  No 
human  being  could  imagine  the  proofs,  the  methods 
of  proof,  and  the  irresistible  power  of  conviction, 
with  which  God  could  and  does  estabhsh  that,  in  the 
intuitions  of  heart  and  conscience,  the  moment  an 
immortal  being  looks  down  into  the  mirror  of  His 
Word,  and  sees  both  his  own  and  God's  image. 
He  sees  himself  in  God's  sight,  and  the  conclu- 
sion is.  Thou  God  seest  me !  Then  at  length, 
when  he  sees  himself  in  Christ's  likeness,  or  longing 


i8       God s  Ti7nepiece for  Maris  Eternity. 

after  that  likeness,  the  demonstration  is,  Thou  my 
Divine  Redeemer  hast  sought  me,  and  found  me, 
and  brought  me  back  to  God. 

I  did  not  find  Thee,  nor  accept  Thee,  nor  acknowl- 
edge Thee,  nor  would  I,  nor  could  I,  of  mine  own  per- 
verted will  and  reason;  but  Thou,  against  both,  didst 
seek  me,  and  uew-create  and  save  me,  by  Thy  Spirit 
and  Thy  Word,  laying  hold  uj)on  me,  within  me,  lead- 
ing captivity  captive,  subduing  my  self-mil,  my  carnal 
mind,  the  enmity  of  my  heart,  and  drawing  me  by  in- 
finite long-suffering  love,  redeeming  grace  and  dy- 
ing love.  And  Thou  makest  me  to  comprehend  this, 
only  by  Christ  dwelling  in  my  heart  by  faith,  strength- 
ening me  for  this,  with  might  by  Thy  Spirit  in  the 
inner  man. 

Here  it  is  that  Jude,  closing  up  the  epistles  in  the 
New  Testament,  presents  the  differential  key  to  the 
whole  inspired  Word:  "Ye,  beloved,  praying  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  building  up  yourselves  on  your  most  holy 
faith,  keep  yourselves  in  the  love  of  God,  looking  for 
the  mercy  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  unto  Eternal 
Life."  Only  thus,  by  discovering  and  using  this  Di- 
vine Calculus,  can  we  bridge  the  gulfs,  or  accept  with 
intelligent,  grateful,  adoring  beHef,  the  infinite  mys- 
teries of  "  God  manifest  in  the  flesh."  Praying  in  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  the  one  element  of  scientific  investiga- 
tion in  the  Scriptures,  without  which  all  the  textual 


God' s  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       ig 

criticism  of  scholars  is  presumptuous  and  vain.  "  Pray- 
ing ALWAYS  WITH  ALL  PRAYEB  AND  SUPPLICATION  IN  THE  SPIR- 
IT," is  Paul's  watchword  as  well  as  Jude's. 

God's  quarries  are  infinite.  The  chronology,  the 
history,  the  records,  the  workmen,  the  instruments, 
the  stuff  to  be  wrought,  the  purposes,  the  methods, 
the  boundless  suffering: — the  very  difficulties  to  us  are 
God's  methods/or  us. 

"Blind  unbelief  is  sure  to  err, 
And  scan  His  work  in  vain; 
God  is  His  own  Intei-preter, 
And  He  will  make  it  plain." 

"  He  that  formeth  the  mountains,  and  createth  the 
spirit;  and  declareth  unto  man  what  is  His  thought, 
and  turneth  the  shadow  of  death  into  the  morning, 
and  maketh  the  day  dark  with  night.  The  thunder  of 
His  power,  who  can  understand  ?  O  the  depth  of  the 
riches  both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God! 
How  unsearchable  are  His  judgments,  and  His  ways 
past  finding  out !  " 

Science  and  religion  are  the  same  infinitude  and 
mystery  of  Godliness.  All  is  of  God  from  Eternity  to 
Eternity.  The  truth  and  its  surroundings,  its  set- 
tings, its  background  and  foreground,  perspectives 
and  retrospectives,  its  origins,  occasions,  sources,  ele- 
ments, intermixtures,  accidents  and  ends;  aU  of  God. 


20       God's  Ti77iepiece for  Mans  Eternity. 

Nor  will  any  one  in  his  senses  say,  The  gold  indeed 
is  of  God,  the  mountain  and  its  quartz,  not.  He  that 
made  the  gold  made  the  mountain  to  contain  it,  to  en- 
shrine it,  and  He  that  made  the  mountain  made  the 
gold.  Both,  and  equally  both,  are  of  God,  and  could 
not  have  been  without  Him.  All  science  is  God's 
truth.  And  so,  in  all  our  scientific  investigations  we 
are  but  tracing  the  work  and  the  footsteps  of  God's 
Presence  and  Power;  so  that  an  impelling  faith  in 
God  is  the  very  substratum  of  the  possibility  of  sci- 
ence. And  without  this  faith,  the  best  university  in 
the  world,  managed  by  the  highest  minds,  is  only  a 
scientific  treadmill,  or  a  dissecting  hall,  with  the  posi- 
tivism of  the  surgeon's  knife  the  only  thing  credited 
in  it. 


IV. 


THE  GRADUAL  PERFECTION  AND  INTERPRETATION 
OF  WORDS  FROM  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  TO  THE 
NEW— THE  WORDS  FOR  "DEATH,"  "HELL,"  AND 
THE  "GRAVE,"  AND  THEIR  ETERNAL  SPIRITUAL 
MEANING  AND  TEACHINGS. 

For  the  conveyance  and  understanding  of  God's 
plan  of  salvation,  human  language  itself  had  to  be 
rescued  from  the  grasp  of  demonism,  materialism  and 
idolatry,  and  new  created  by  the  Holy  Spirit.     The 


God  s  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eterjiity.       21 

words  sin  and  redemption  as  well  as  holiness,  could  be 
understood  only  by  God's  disclosing  of  Himself,  in 
His  infinitely  lioly  and  adorable  attributes,  and  re- 
vealing in  contrast,  man's  sinful  heart,  character,  and 
ruin.  These  and  other  terms  were  more  and  more 
exactly  and  fully  defined  through  the  gradualism  of 
inspiration,  in  institutions,  laws,  precepts,  examples, 
appointed  and  expressed  by  divine  wisdom  and  mercy, 
dealing  with  the  necessities  of  sinful  men,  providing 
for  and  proj)hesying  the  coming  Redeemer,  that  the 
world  might  know  when,  where,  and  in  what  charac- 
ter, and  with  what  signs,  to  welcome  Him  for  the  sal- 
vation of  their  souls.  The  words  Sheol,  Hades,  and 
Gehenna,  regarding  the  unseen  world,  and  the  dwell- 
ings of  men  in  that  world,  according  to  theu'  character 
in  this,  have  had  a  similar  gradual  perfection  and  in- 
terpretation, from  the  Old  Testament  to  the  New.  The 
expressions  heaven  and  hell,  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
and  of  God,  expiation  and  atonement,  sacrifice  and 
offering,  as  well  as  the  righteousness  of  God,  were 
seeds  of  eternal  and  infinite  significance,  gradually 
unfolded  and  illustrated,  through  eras  of  inspiration 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  in  the  life  and  experience 
of  men  distinguished  for  their  piety.  Coming  up  out 
of  the  darkness  of  Egypt,  the  relations  and  real- 
ities of  the  future  life,  as  well  as  the  duties  of  the 
present,    and   the  i-ight   methods   of   God's   worship, 


22       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity, 

liad  to  be   redeemed   from  the   doctrines   of   devils 
and   clothed   with   divine   light. 

The  Author  and  Finisher  of  Faith  must  Himself  in- 
spire the  spirit  of  a  loving  trust,  and  teach  its  adoring 
language  for  believers.  The  Redeemer  of  the  soul, 
coming  to  save  mankind,  must  do  everything  for 
them,  making  all  things  new.  His  work  was  as  that 
of  a  Missionary  Angel  among  Dacotah  savages,  com- 
pelled to  construct  their  written  language  for  them 
out  of  the  elements  of  their  rude  spoken  dialects, 
never  before  reduced  to  writing.  Their  instructor 
must  make  their  very  dictionary  out  of  theu-  own 
rugged,  imj^erfect  conversational  vocabulary.*    He  be- 

*  See  the  interesting  history  of  the  progress  of  the  mission 
among  the  Dacotah  Indians,  and  the  making  of  a  Dacotah  dic- 
tionary and  Bible,  by  the  fii-st  missionary,  Stephen  E.  Kiggs, 
D.D.,  LL.D.,  and  his  wife.  The  volume  is  entitled,  "Mary  and 
I. "  Having  translated  the  gospels  into  the  Dacotah  tongue,  Dr. 
Biggs  says:  "We  now  addressed  ourselves  afresh  to  the  work 
of  teaching  and  preaching.  In  preaching  I  began  to  feel  more 
freedom  and  joy.  There  had  been  times  when  the  Dacotah  lan- 
guage seemed  to  be  barren  and  meaningless.  The  words  for 
Salvation  and  Life,  and  even  Death  and  Sin,  did  not  mean  what 
they  did  in  English.  It  was  not  to  me  a  heart-language.  But 
this  passed  away.  A  Dacotah  word  began  to  thrill  as  an  English 
word.  Christ  came  into  the  language.  The  Holy  Spirit  began  to 
pour  sweetness  and  power  into  it.  It  became  a  joy  to  preach, — 
not  exhausting  as  it  sometimes  had  been." 

Thus  it  was  that  Christ  came  into  the  language  of  our  com- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       2^ 

comes  the  Inventor  of  an  Electric  Telegraph,  who 
must  arrange  the  posts  and  the  wires,  and  contrive 
the  aljDhabet  of  cij)hers,  and  teach  the  operators  and 
the  postmasters  how  to  manage  the  machinery,  how 
to  catch  and  interpret  the  signals,  the  dots,  dashes, 
pauses. 

If  God  taught  Adam  the  language  of  Creation  be- 
fore the  fall  (see  Gen.  ii.  19,  20),  how  much  more 
the  language  of  Redemption  for  himself  and  his  pos- 
terity after  the  faU.  A  Messianic  language,  and  illus- 
trations of  the  covenant  by  blood,  such  as  in  the  Pass- 
over, and  the  sin-offerings,  and  jDurifications,  must  be 
provided,  as  well  as  the  promised  Messiah.  A  lan- 
guage not  only  of  words,  but  of  symbols  and  signs 
prophetic  of  His  coming,  and  making  known  the  needs 
of  fallen  men,  and  the  spii*itual  heart-and-hfe-renewing 
nature  of  salvation  by  divine  grace. 

God  early  put  mankind  into  the  school  of  object- 
teachings,  as  children  are  taught  by  pictures,  puzzles, 
ships,  buildings,  trees,  animals,  to  draw  lessons  and 
make  definitions  fi-om  them.     So  with  the  lessons  of 

mon  version  of  the  New  Testament  from  the  first  moment  when 
Tyndale,  guided  by  the  Holy  Sj)irit,  and  filled  with  love  to  souls, 
began  his  work  upon  it.  The  revisers  of  such  a  translation 
need  something  more  than  additional  Greek  MSS.,  and  critical 
skill,  to  fit  them  fer  their  work,  and  preserve  its  theopneusted 
beauty  and  sacredness. 


24       God's  Timepiece  for  Maris  Eternity. 

religion,  from  the  garden  and  its  dressing  and  keep- 
ing, from  the  Trees  of  Knowledge  and  of  Life,  from 
Cherubim  and  the  flaming  sword,  from  worship  by 
altars  and  incense,  from  ladders  of  angels  between 
earth  and  heaven,  j)illars  of  cloud  and  fire,  the  burn- 
ing bush,  smitten  rocks  and  fountains  in  the  desert, 
figui'es,  types,  brazen  serpents,  tabernacles  of  witness, 
cherubim  of  gloajy  overshadowing  the  Mercy-seat.  All 
these  things  had  an  infinitely  merciful  divine  meaning 
in  their  origin  and  use.  And  by  as  much  as  for  the 
accuracy  of  a  comjDass  or  a  telegraph  the  utmost  ex- 
actness in  the  signals  is  indispensable  for  any  safety  or 
reliance  in  the  emergencies  of  our  temiMral  life  (and  so 
in  the  science  of  our  medicinal  notations),  infinitely 
more  must  the  language  of  inspiration  regarding  Eter- 
nity be  alsolutely  true  and  infallible,  for  our  Eternal 
Life.  It  has  been  well  said  that  an  incarnate  language 
is  as  necessary  as  an  incarnate  God;  an  infallible 
thought  and  speech,  as  an  omniscient  heart-searching 
Redeemer. 

The  first  instance  of  the  word  Sheol,  and  the  first 
mention  of  the  grave  in  the  Old  Testament  Scrip- 
tures, we  shall  find  in  the  record  of  Jacob's  grief 
for  Rachel,  in  Gen.  xxxv.  20,  and  for  Joseph,  in  Gen. 
xxxvii.  35.  "  I  will  go  down  into  the  grave  unto  my 
son,  mourning"  (I  wiU  go  down  inta  Sheol).  A  hun- 
dred years  before  this,  Abraham  had  purchased  the 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       2^ 

cave  of  the  field  of  Maclipelat  for  the  burial  of  his 
wife.  "In  the  choice  of  our  sepulchres,"  said  the 
children  of  Heth,  "bury  thy  dead."  Their  Sheol  was 
a  cave,  and  the  Sheol  of  the  Egyptians  still  earher, 
a  succession  of  caves,  a  tier  of  caves,  with  places 
for  the  sarcophagi,  one  above  another,  a  kingxlom 
of  catacombs,  the  origin  of  the  imagery  in  Isaiah 
xiv.  9,  11,  15,  where  the  Hebrew  is  Sheol  throughout, 
though  translated  Hell  in  verses  9  and  15,  and  Grave 
in  11.  It  was  not  yet  rendered  Hades  (for  the  era  of 
the  Greek  translation  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  had 
not  arrived),  but  Sheol  from  beneath,  the  kingdom  of 
the  dead,  "  is  moved  for  thee  to  meet  thee  at  thy 
coming.  Thy  pomp  is  brought  down  to  the  grave, 
Sheol.  The  worm  is  spread  over  thee,  and  the  worms 
cover  thee."  Two  hundred  years  later  we  find  the 
same  imagery  in  Ezekiel  xxxii.  21,  27,  "  The  strong 
out  of  the  mighty  shall  speak  to  him  out  of  the  midst 
of  Sheol,  whose  graves  are  set  in  the  sides  of  the  pit, 
the  nether  parts  of  the  earth." 

Gesenius  thinks  Sheol  means  by  its  derivation  a  hol- 
low subterranean  enclosure,  but  also  suggests,  what 
seems  more  likely,  a  derivation  from  the  root  shaal,  to 
demand;  being  the  orcus  I'apax  of  CatuUus,  the  rapa- 
cious, all-remorseless  Hell  or  Hades,  never  satiated  with 
its  victims.  But  as  yet,  in  Abraham's  day,  Homer  was 
not,  nor  Pluto,  nor  Achilles,   nor  the   adventures  of 


26       God's  Timepiece  for  Alan's  Eternity. 

Ulysses,  nor  any  dreams  or  records  of  exjDlorers  or 
discoverers  of  the  regions  of  the  dead. 

This  Hebrew  Avord  then  had  a  meaning  of  its  own, 
several  hundred  years  jDrior  to  the  Greek  mytholo- 
gies. And  its  meaning,  as  to  the  extent  and  nature  of 
the  kingdom  of  the  dead,  grew,  with  every  experience 
of  death  and  its  terrors  as  revealed  of  God.  Thus 
Sheol  gradually  swept  up  all  the  death-judgments  and 
pestilences  of  eveiy  age,  from  Sodom  and  Gomorrah, 
and  Korah  and  his  company,  and  the  Kibroth  hcdtaavah 
of  the  desert,  to  Hinnom  and  Gehenna,  with  then-  burn- 
ings and  corruj)tions,  growing  into  a  more  intense  pre- 
sentation and  spiritual  meaning,  through  successive 
floods  of  light  in  the  Projihets  and  the  Psalms;  till  in 
the  gospels,  in  Mark,  for  example,  ix.  43-48,  it  is  Ge- 
henna, "where  their  worm  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  is 
not  quenched";  and  in  Luke  xvi.  22-31,  it  is  Hades, 
where  the  Sadducean,  unbelieving  rich  man  is  in  tor- 
ment, beholding  Abraham  afar  off,  and  Lazarus  in  his 
bosom.  Death  was  always  a  judgment  against  the 
wicked,  and  the  grave  a  kingdom  of  terror,  never  re- 
Heved  of  its  terrors  to  the  ungodly.  The  beggar  died, 
and  was  carried  by  the  angels  into  Abraham's  bosom. 
The  rich  man  died  and  was  buried,  and  found  himself 
in  Hades,  tormented  in  the  flame.  Definiteness,  under 
the  growth  of  inspiration  and  experience,  took  the 
place  of  uncertainty.     Opinion  of  what  was  to  be  after 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eteritity.      2^ 

death  became  more  and  more  fixed,  as  the  world 
drew  towards  the  rising  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness. 

See  the  whole  Book  of  Job,  and  its  \ivid  references 
to  the  traditions  and  histories  of  the  judgments  of 
God,  antediluvian  and  otherwise,  against  the  wicked; 
"The  heritage  aj)pointed  unto  them  by  God."  "Hast 
thou  marked  the  old  way  which  wicked  men  have 
trodden?  And  the  terror  when  God  taketh  away  the 
soul;  the  portion  of  a  wicked  man  with  God,  when  the 
heavens  shall  reveal  his  iniquity  ?  "  It  is  the  assertion 
of  experience  and  truth  by  the  Spirit  and  the  Word  of 
God;  the  common  proj)hetic  belief  in  a  coming  state 
of  guilt  and  retribution  in  the  unseen  world,  where 
the  vncked  will  receive  the  due  reward  of  their  wicked- 
ness, and  God  will  be  justified  in  the  sight  of  the 
whole  universe. 

Not  only  in  Genesis  and  Job  is  there  the  concentra- 
tion of  these  lightnings,  but  in  Ecclesiastes  and  the 
Book  of  Proverbs.  There  is  never  the  possibility  sug- 
gested of  an}^  such  thing  as  an  Eternal  Hope  for  the 
wicked,  but  the  very  contrary  is  affirmed;  despair  in- 
stead of  hoj)e.  They  that  say  unto  God,  Depart  from 
us,  for  we  desire  not  the  knowledge  of  Thy  ways, — 
they  have  then-  desu-e,  their  reward.  This  conviction 
of  a  righteous  and  eternal  judgment  is  an  atmosphere 
of  subhme  and  awful  consciousness  over  and  within 
the  whole  human  mind. 


28       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

It  was  an  early  Hebrew  proverb  that  "the  wicked 
shall  be  driven  away  in  his  wickedness,  but  the  right- 
eous hath  hoj)e  in  his  death."  The  consequence  or 
effect  of  d}TJig  in  one's  sins  was  an  increasing  terror 
and  burden  on  the  soul,  that  nothmg  but  the  sense  of 
forgiveness  could  remove.  See  Ezekiel  xxxiii.  10,  11, 
and  compare  Ps.  ix.  17,  "  The  wicked  shall  be  tui'ned 
into  Sheol  (that  is,  a  region  and  state  of  penal  retri- 
bution) and  all  the  nations  that  forget  God."  This 
recej)tacle  and  habitation  of  the  wicked  was  not  the 
grave  merely,  and  could  never  have  been  so  misinter- 
preted, but  a  condition  of  misery  for  evil  men  accord- 
ing to  their  character  in  this  world,  carried  into  the 
next.  All  men,  all  nations,  go  down  to  the  grave,  the 
house  ajDpointed  for  all  living,  good  or  bad,  beheving 
or  unbelieving.  But  only  the  wicked  are  "  turned  into 
Sheol,"  as  in  Ps.  xlix.  14,  15,  19,  "never  to  see  light." 
This  word,  in  all  such  passages  translated  by  the 
Greek  Hades,  is  demonstrated  by  the  context  as 
meaning  nothing  less  than  what  we  call  Hell;  that  is 
simply,  the  abode  of  the  wicked  who   die   in  then- 


*  Consult  for  ample  proof  the  E^egetical  Essays  of  Prof. 
Stuart  on  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  words  relating  to  future  pun- 
isliment.  Of  this  volume,  reprinted  in  Great  Britain,  it  was  said 
that  no  investigation  of  the  same  terms,  of  like  extent  or  equal 
ability,  existed  in  our  own  or  any  other  language. 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mail  s  Eternity.       2g 

But  the  .ancient  believer  in  God  had  a  refuge 
and  rest  in  Him,  and  in  dying  was  said  to  have 
been  gathered  to  his  fathers.  And  the  hope  of  eternal 
life  continued  to  increase  in  intensity  and  brightness, 
till  in  Christ  it  assumed  shaj^e  and  lustre,  as  when 
carbon  is  crystaUized  into  the  diamond,  l^his  was 
the  progressive  inspiration  and  Christian  experience  in 
the  Old  Testament.  Forgiveness  of  sin  removed  aU 
the  terrors  of  death,  and  quieted  and  comforted  the 
soul  in  passing  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death.  Across  all  the  darkness,  clouds,  impenetrable 
sorrow  and  gloom  of  the  grave,  the  Pilgrims  under 
Moses,  the  Pro^Dhets,  and  the  Psalms  went  direct  to 
God  in  the  belief  of  that  life  and  immortality,  which 
were  not  only  brought  to  light,  but  reduced  to 
sense,  in  Christ's  resurrection  and  ascension.  They 
had  received  that  j)i'omise,  and  lived  uj^on  it  by  the 
power  of  faith,  though  they  saw  not  its  fulfilment; 
God,  says  Paul,  having  reserved  that  divine  triumph, 
that  better  thing,  that  finishing  thing,  for  us,  that 
neither  they  without  us,  nor  we  without  them,  should 
be  made  perfect.  But  if  there  is  truth  in  the  eleventh 
of  Hebrews,  or  religion  in  the  life  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment saints,  or  the  foundations  of  true  piety  in  the 
Old  Testament  revelation,  the  old  witnesses  for  God 
carried  on  all  the  processes  of  their  spiritual  life 
with  the  same  respect  precisely  to  the  great  recom- 


JO       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

pense  of  reward  in  a  better  country,  even  a  heavenly, 
as  we.  From  what  Hving  well  indeed  did  Christ's 
own  piety  flow  forth,  but  those  very  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures? And  by  what  was  He  nourished  and  sus- 
tained, but  by  every  word  of  promise  from  the  mouth 
of  God,  for  the  fulfilment  of  which  He  Himself  was 
to  be  the  Bread  of  Grod  which  cometh  down  fi'om 
heaven  for  the  life  of  the  world  9"^ 

Had  there  not  been,  deej^-grounded,  those  original 
fixtures  of  opinion  and  belief  in  the  realities  of  heaven 
and  hell,  as  states  of  happiness  and  misery  contrasted 

*  Some  learned  expositors  have  maintained  that  the  faith 
of  the  old  Hebrews  in  God  was  higher  and  more  remarkable 
and  effective  than  ours  ever  could  be,  because  they  had  set 
before  them  nothing  but  temporal  expectations  and  rfewards; 
and  yet,  knowing  nothing  about  immortality,  nevertheless  rose 
to  a  more  exalted  piety  and  disinterested  obedience,  obeying 
God  exactly  as  they  were  commanded,  notwithstanding  that 
they  knew  nothing  about  Him  except  as  a  tem^Doral  governor, 
for  temporal  ends,  and  never  expected  to  know  anything  more 
of  Him,  or  to  have  anything  more  to  do  with  Him,  after 
death.  This  is  the  absurdity  with  which  Warburton,  and 
a  multitude  of  German  Commentators  since  his  day,  have 
blasted  the  verdure  of  the  Old  Testament  like  a  simoon,  and 
rendered  it  a  land  of  darkness  and  confusion,  instead  of  an 
Eden  of  the  Tree  of  Life,  whose  leaves  were  for  the  healing 
of  the  nations.  The  palsy  and  the  poison  of  their  speculations 
are  on  many  books  of  so-called  Christian  exposition  still. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.      ji 

and  eternal,  in  holiness  and  sin;  and  axioms  of  reason- 
ing from  the  character  of  incorrigible  criminals  with 
passions  set  on  fire  of  hell,  and  habits  fitted  for  no 
other  abode,  there  could  have  sj)rung  u^d  neither  such 
proverbs,  nor  such  prophetic  reproofs  and  threaten- 
ings,  nor  the  endurance  of  them  when  proclaimed. 
They  were  beheved  and  understood  as  God's  incon- 
trovertible representations  of  a  fviture  world,  where 
the  consequences  of  sin  persisted  in  would  inevitably 
be  endured  by  men  who  had  chosen  to  live  and  die  in 
their  own  wickedness.  We  find  a  demonstration  of  aU 
this  in  comparing  our  Lord's  warnings  to  the  Jews 
against  the  consequences  of  dying  in  theu*  sins  with 
the  third,  eighteenth,  and  thirty-third  chapters  of 
Ezekiel. 

These  moulds  of  thought,  then,  even  if  an  omnis- 
cient Saviour  had  been  restricted  to  the  use  of  them, 
or  could  have  contrived  none  others,  were,  with  all 
their  weakness  and  inexactness,  abundantly  sufficient 
for  the  conveyance  of  "the  mind  of  the  Spirit"  in 
the  gospels,  and  in  the  New  Testament.  And  as  to 
the  eternal  meaning,  the  eternal  reaUty,  vast,  infinite, 
overwhelming,  there  is  no  room  for  doubt.  It  is  not 
a  dispute  of  words,  nor  any  contradiction  or  uncer- 
tainty of  thoughts,  or  durations,  but  existence  itself, 
according  to  character;  and  character  set  a-going  by- 
choice,  in  Time,  for  Eternity. 


J2       Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 


So  in  the  passage  in  Matt.  xi.  23,  "  Thou  Capernaum 
which  art  exalted  unto  Heaven,  shalt  be  brought  down 
to  Hell"  {Hades);  the  word  cannot  possibly  mean  the 
grave  merely,  for  the  issue  immediately  is  defined  to 
be  that  of  the  last  judgment;  and  Capernaum  with 
all  the  cities  of  the  world  will  go  down  to  death  and 
the  grave  at  any  rate,  iiTesioective  of  character.  But 
Capernaum,  and  the  other  unbeHeving  cities  wherein 
most  of  Chi'ist's  mighty  works  were  done,  and  by 
•which  their  inhabitants  through  jDOSsession  of  such 
light  and  mercy  had  been  raised  to  Heaven,  should 
in  the  day  of  judgment  bo  "  thrust  down  to  Hell." 
Compare  Luke  x.   14,  15. 

Now  if  we  take  only  a  few  of  the  great  shining 
passages  of  Old  Testament  Kevelation  on  which  the 
New  was  built, — the  16th  Psalm,  eighth  to  eleventh 
verses,  and  the  seventeenth,  "  I  will  behold  thy  face 
in  righteousness;  I  shall  be  satisfied  when  I  awake 
in  Thy  likeness";  along  with  the  73d  Psalm,  "Thou 
shalt  guide  me  with  Thy  counsel,  and  afterward  receive 
me  to  glory  ";  and  Job's  shaft  of  supernatural  inspir- 
ation, "I  know  that  my  Redeemer  liveth,"  and  the 
corresponding  translation  of  these  articles  of  Job's 
and  David's  faith  into  their  daily  life  and  exi^erience ; 
just  there  especially  where  a  man's  effective  rehgious 
hope  and  belief  are  brought  out  most  decisively,  and 
demonstrated  in  the  presence  and  suffering  of  disease 


God's  Tmiepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity.       jj 

and  death;  the  conclusion  is  inevitable  of  a  satisfactory- 
knowledge  of  a  blessed  immortahty.  Take  for  exam- 
ple at  the  funeral  of  David's  child,  the  words  of  the 
king,  "i  shall  go  to  him,  but  he  will  not  retiu-n  to 
me ";  this  knowledge  and  prophecy  of  the  future 
heavenly  state,  and  the  simple  acquiescence  of  all 
the  attendant  and  questioning  j^eople  in  David's  be- 
havior, as  being  perfectly  accounted  for  and  satisfac- 
tory, with  that  key  of  eternity  opening  the  door  !  The 
logical  faculty  must  be  indeed  blind,  and  unfit  to 
disclose  the  treasures  of  a  revelation  from  heaven  to 
mankind,  if  it  can  make  out  anything  other,  or  any- 
thing less  from  all  this,  than  the  knowledge  of  the 
certainty  of  life  and  immortality.  The  same  may  be 
said  of  the  record  of  the  translation  of  Enoch  and 
Elijah,  and  the  words,  "He  was  not,  for  God  took 
him,"  and  the  world-wide  knowledge  of  such  events 
by  tradition  as  well  as  history,  in  the  ages  of  divine 
communication. 

Now  then,  plainly,  when  our  Lord  put  into  uni- 
versal currency  with  His  own  image  and  superscrip- 
tion, as  the  real  bullion  of  divine  truth,  in  words  of  the 
Holy  Spirit's  coining,  that  infinitely  solemn  and  con- 
centrating parable  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus,  and 
Abraham  conversing  in  the  Eternal  World,  as  to  the 
endless  retributions  for  character  and  action  in  this 
world,   He   taught   no   new   doctrines.     But   He   did 


^4-       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

take  up  and  oj)en  and  illustrate  the  Volume  of  His 
Father's  will  concerning  Himself,  and  the  value  and 
destiny  of  human  souls,  and  concerning  life,  death, 
and  Eternity,  in  the  j^resence  of  Sadducean,  Epicu- 
rean, unbelieving  men.  He  depicted  and  dramatized 
for  men  what  He  knew  to  be  divine  reahties,  and 
what  he  came  in  infinite  mercy  and  love  to  reveal 
fully  for  salvation  of  the  lost;  though  taught  ah-eady 
by  Moses  and  the  prophets  so  clearly,  that  if  men 
would  not  hear  and  be  convinced  by  such  witnesses, 
neither  would  they,  though  one  rose  from  the  dead. 

"  Son,  remember !  "  An  affectionate,  compassionate 
address !  "What  could  be  more  so  ?  The  very  s^Du-it  of 
the  Divine  Saviour  weeping  over  Jerusalem.  Yet  all 
the  compassion  in  the  universe  could  not  bridge  the 
gulf,  or  bring  that  man  into  Abraham's  bosom,  who 
in  his  lifetime  had  received  his  good  things,  and 
beheved  in  and  regarded  nothing  better,  while  Laza- 
rus had  received  evil  things  with  patient  submission 
and  faith  in  God. 

It  was  infinite  Incarnate  Love,  nothing  less,  in  the 
Man  of  Sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief,  on  whom 
God  hath  laid  the  iniquities  of  us  all,  that  then  and 
thus  on  earth  was  revealing,  opening,  expounding, 
for  the  instruction  and  salvation  of  the  soul,  these 
dreadful  mysteries  of  self-"\vill,  and  sin,  and  its  eternal 
consequences.     And  the  one  truth  of  overwhelming 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.      j^ 

power  in  all  these  warnings  is  that  of  the  interminable 
and  ever-accumulating  weight  of  character,  for  good 
or  evil,  as  long  as  the  soul  exists,  with  the  attribute 
of  a  conscious,  voluntary  responsibility  belonging  to  it. 

It  was  the  vivid  di-amatization  of  these  realities  of 
guUt,  with  the  assurance  of  their  eternal  results,  that 
made  Christ,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  the  Incarna- 
tion of  God's  mercy,  and  the  most  terrific  Preacher  of 
His  righteousness  and  justice  that  ever  spoke.  Never 
man  spake  like  this  Man,  when,  from  the  depths  of 
Love  Divine,  He  uttered  the  thunder  of  that  awful 
text,  "Ye  serpents,  ye  generation  of  vipers,  how  can 
ye  escape  the  condemnation  of  heU  ?  " 

Yet  the  whole  of  its  awfulness  was  already  in  the 
proverb :  "  The  wicked  shall  be  driven  away  in  his 
wickedness,  but  the  righteous  hath  hope  in  his  death." 
And  in  the  prayer  of  Moses:  "Who  knoweth  the  power 
of  Thine  anger  ?  Even  according  to  Thy  fear,  so  is  Thy 
wrath.  So  teach  us  to  number  oiu'  days,  that  we  may 
apply  oiu*  hearts  unto  wisdom."  Who  now  dare  pal- 
ter with  the  watchwords  of  Eternal  Life  and  Death, 
adopted  in  mercy  by  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth,  that 
the  inhabitants  of  the  world  may,  in  the  time  of  their 
merciful  visitation,  learn  righteousness  ? 


j6       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity, 


Y. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  CLASSICAL  MYTHOLOGY  AND 
GREEK  POETRY  UPON  CHRISTIAN  LANGUAGE  AND 
BELIEF— STALACTITES  OF  HOMER'S  GENIUS  IN  THE 
CAVES  OF  PLUTO— THE  LIGHT  OF  DAVID'S  PSALMS— 
THE  INTERNAL  EVIDENCE  CARRIES  EVERYTHING— 
THE  GREAT  SHINING  PASSAGES  DRAMATIZED  BY 
CHRIST. 

We  certainly  attribute  too  much  authority  and 
power  to  Homer  and  the  Greeks,  making'  him  almost 
a  teacher  of  inspired  theology  or  eschatology,  when 
we  go  to  him  for  the  meaning  of  Sheol;  or  especially 
if  we  go  with  the  crowd  of  Indian  path-finders  to 
Babylon  and  the  Oriental  philosophers,  to  find  either 
the  details  of  the  futiu'e,  or  the  intermediate  state, 
or  any  of  the  foundation  stones  or  j)i'iiiciples  on 
which  the  Hebrew  imaginations  or  beUefs  of  such 
a  state  rested. 

The  Hebrew  words  of  spiritual  instruction  and  warn- 
ing, promise  and  legislation,  were  shafts  of  divine  rev- 
elation at  successive  periods,  Adamic,  Noahic,  Abra- 
hamic,  more  and  more  resi^lendently  lighted  fi'om 
God.  It  must  be  remembered  that  Herodotus  and 
Homer  did  not  begin  to  write  till  centuries  after  the 
Exodus  of  the  Israehtes  when  they  came  forth  fi-om 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity.       jy 

bondage,  full  mailed  in  all  the  knowledge  of  immor- 
tality received  from  Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob,  Moses, 
and  all  that  was  possessed  also  by  the  Egyptians  them- 
selves. And  when  the  Hebrew  words  or  phrases  con- 
cerning death,  the  grave,  and  the  world  to  come  were 
translated  into  Greek,  those  translations  conveyed  the 
full  Hebraic  meaning;  thus  transferring  the  breath 
and  life  of  divine  insjoiration  and  knowledge  even  into 
the  dialect  of  the  heathen  mythology.  It  was  a  bap- 
tism from  the  Nile  of  one  language  into  the  Jordan  of 
the  other. 

It  is  more  likely  that  the  Septuagint  translation 
carried  the  elements  of  heavenly  light  and  teaching 
into  the  Greek  mind,  than  that  the  Greeks  carried 
and  threw  the  vail  of  their  philosophy  and  supersti- 
tions over  the  Hebrew  mind. 

Yet  the  droppings  of  Homer's  genius  have  become 
stalactites  to  hold  up  the  mythological  caves  of  Pluto; 
and  so  we  go  in  with  our  smoking  historical  torches, 
and  admire  the  flashing  lights,  almost  as  if  they  were 
sunbeams.  The  true  light  to  take  into  this  awful 
and  gloomy  imagery  of  Styx  and  Acheron  is  that  of 
David's  Psalms,  rather  than  of  Ulysses'  imagined 
experience  and  communications  with  the  wandering 
desolate  ghosts  of  Hades.  For  the  Hebrew  genius 
took  the  Greek  captive  for  God's  purposes  of  a  wider 
and  more   perfect    inspiration,    not    the    Greek    the 


^8       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

Hebrew.  And  so  we  have  in  Hades,  as  tlie  adopted 
synonym  of  Sheol  and  the  kingdom  of  the  grave,  not 
Tartarus  and  Elysium,  still  taught  as  if  under  divine 
sanction,  but  a  kingdom  of  immediate  spiritual  forces 
and  awards;  not  a  running  to  and  fro  of  shuddering 
ghosts,  lamenting,  as  the  great  evil  of  death,  that 
their  bodies  were  never  buried,  but  a  foreshadowing 
of  the  departure  of  those  eternal  processions  mar- 
tiaUed  at  the  word  of  the  last  Judge,  "And  these 
shaU  go  away  into  everlasting  punishment,  but  the 
righteous  into  life  eternal." 

The  internal  evidence  carries  everything,  and  we 
ask,  "What,  on  the  whole,  is  the  thought  conveyed 
for  our  acceptance,  belief,  and  practical  usage  and 
guidance  ?  Over  and  above  the  particular  words, 
there  is  a  basis  of  known  ideas  which,  if  it  cannot 
be  exactly  bodied  forth  in  terms,  still  remains  very 
clear  in  substance.  Take  for  example  the  striking 
text  in  Proverbs,  "The  way  of  Life  is  above  to  the 
wise,  that  he  may  depart  £i*om  Hell  beneath." 

This  does  not  mean  whai  we  call  Hell,  say  some  of 
the  critics,  but  only  the  grave.  Hades,  the  house  ap- 
pointed for  all  living.  Well  then,  what  does  that  mean? 
It  cannot  surely  mean  the  grave  merely,  the  seiDulchre 
or  place  of  interment  for  the  body;  for  no  ivise 
man  or  fool  ever  has  avoided,  or  ever  can  avoid 
that,  or  depart  from  it,  though  in  him  were  concen- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity.      jg 

trated  the  science,  philosoj)liy,  and  life  of  all  ages. 
And  it  cannot  mean  dealh  merely,  for  it  is  appointed 
unto  aU  men  once  to  die,  and  after  that,  tlie  judgment. 
And  it  cannot  mean  a  mere  under-ioorld  of  departed 
spirits  all  alike  in  the  same  quality  and  condition; 
for  it  is  contrasted  with  an  above-world  of  the  ■?oi>c, 
by  taking  the  way  to  which  in  this  earthly  existence, 
while  the  way  of  life  is  open,  he  departs  from  Hell 
beneath.  The  thought  of  the  contrast  is  evidently 
eternal,  and  founded  on  character. 

No  matter  then  for  the  imperfection  of  human  lan- 
guage, nor  the  ignorance  or  superstition  of  those  who 
first  used  it,  and  made  moulds  of  thought  out  of  it. 
There  remains,  unescapable,  inevitable,  the  great  over- 
whelming thought  or  conviction  of  a  world  of  character 
beyond  the  grave;  and  that  character  as  eternal  as  the 
choices  that  began  it,  and  the  God  that  governs  and 
hath  appointed  its  retributions.  It  is  above, — the  way 
of  Hfe;  beneath,  the  way  of  death;  but  each  and  both 
the  way  of  our  existence,  conceived  of  as  fixed  and 
certain,  beyond  the  grave,  beyond  the  death  of  the  body. 
So  much,  certainly,  is  included  in  the  use  of  the  word 
Hell,  in  this  and  a  number  of  similar  passages,  so 
translated  from  the  Old  Testament  into  English. 

It  is  plain  that  in  these  passages  there  was  conveyed 
the  assurance  of  a  future  state  and  place  of  retribu- 
tion to  the  vncked,  and  reward  and  happiness  to  the 


^(9       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity . 

righteous.  Every  man  to  whom  these  passages  were 
addressed,  eveiy  man  who  heard  or  read  these  words, 
knew  that  they  described  an  indisj)ittable  reaUty  and 
behef ;  they  were  elements  of  a  commanding  common 
consciousness,  to  which  our  Saviour  Himself  appealed, 
when  He  warned  men  against  the  destruction  of  soul 
and  body  in  hell,  and  drew  His  teachings  in  regard  to 
that  hell — its  nature,  extent,  and  eternity— fi'om  the 
Old  Testament  Scriptures.  The  English  reader  has 
only  to  take  Young's  Analytical  Concordance  of  the 
Hebrew,  Greek,  and  English  terms  for  Hell,  and  com- 
pare the  passages,  and  the  argument  is  irresistible. 

Take  them  into  the  New  Testament,  and  we  find 
them  dramatized  by  Christ  with  such  vivid  intensity 
in  His  own  parables  and  interpretations,  that  the  dead 
coming  back  into  life  could  not  have  spoken  more 
convincingly.  It  is  imjDossible  that  our  Lord's  reas- 
oning from  such  passages  can  rest  on  any  other 
grounds  than  those  of  a  Verbal  Inspiration;  the 
truths  conveyed  being  of  infinite  importance,  and 
therefore  necessarily  infaUible,  both  in  phraseology 
and  meaning. 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.      ^i 


VI. 


ABSOLUTE  CERTAINTY  OF  GODS  WORD,  IN  OR- 
DER TO  THE  LIFE  OF  MAN'S  SOUL,  THROUGH 
FAITH  IN  CHRIST — TRUTHS  FOR  ETERNITY 
MAY  BE  AS  WELL  KNOWN  BY  INFERENCE, 
AS  BY  MIRACLE — CHRIST'S  OWN  METHOD  OF 
REASONING   AND   BUILDING. 

It  is  ahaohdely  certain,  if  anythiag  in  this  world 
can  be,  that  God  has  given  us  the  means  of  ascer- 
taining all  the  truths  necessary  for  our  immortal 
well  being,  and  of  detecting  and  exposing  the  false- 
hoods that  put  us  in  danger  of  eternal  evil.  And  yet, 
absolute  certainty  can,  no  more  than  goodness,  exist 
anywhere  out  of  God,  or  without  Him  in  it,  as  its 
essence.  It  is  with  a  verily,  verily,  that  Jesus  said 
to  the  Jews,  "  The  Son  can  do  nothing  of  HimseK, 
but  what  He  seeth  the  Father  do,  for  what  things 
soever  He  doeth,  those  also  doeth  the  Son  likewise; 
for  the  Father  loveth  the  Son,  and  showeth  Him 
aU  things  that  He  Himself  doeth."  And  to  this  end, 
"that  all  should  honor  the  Son  even  as  they  honor 
the  Father " ;  recei-^ing  His  words  and  the  words  of 
His  Apostles,  as  the  Father's  words.  "The  words 
that  I  speak  unto  j'ou,  they  are  Spirit  and  they  are 


^2       God's  Timepiece f 07''  Alans  Eternity. 

Life.  The  word  that  ye  hear  is  not  Mine  but  the  Fa- 
ther's which  sent  Me."  "  I  have  given  unto  them  the 
words  ivhich  Thou  gavest  3Ie.  I  have  given  them  Thy 
Word.  Sanctify  them  through  Thy  truth;  Thy  Word 
is  truth.  Them  also  who  shall  believe  on  Me  through 
their  tuord,  that  they  all  may  be  one,  as  Thou,  Father, 
art  in  Me,  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one 
in  us,  that  the  world  may  believe  that  Thou  hast  sent  Me." 

If  there  be  not  here  the  truth  and  necessity  de- 
clared of  an  infallible  verbal  inspiration  in  all  things 
necessary  to  the  knowledge  of  God  in  Christ,  where  can 
the  assertion  or  the  idea  of  it  ever  be  found?  But 
still  it  all  hangs  by  the  great  prophetic  covenant  in 
Moses  and  Isaiah:  "A  Prophet  shall  the  Lord  your 
God  raise  you  up;  and  I  will  put  My  words  in  His 
mouth,  and  whosoever  will  not  hearken  unto  My 
WORDS  which  He  shall  speak  in  My  name,  I  will  require 
it  of  him."  "My  Spirit  and  My  Word,"  are  j)ro- 
nounced  inseparable.  They  certainly  are  as  much 
so  as  the  spirit  and  the  words  of  Socrates  and  Plato, 
or  the  soul  and  body  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Himself. 

There  are  things  as  well  known,  as  absolutely  cer- 
tain by  inference,  as  they  ever  could  be  by  a  present 
miracle.  So  Christ  reasoned.  There  are  truths  as 
absolutely  known  to  be  true,  by  correspondence  be- 
tween .  the  external  voucher  and  the  inward  exj^eri- 
ence,    as    if   they  were   a  minie-ball,    shot    through 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity.       ^j 

your  heart,  and  taking  you  in  a  moment  into  tlie 
world  of  spirits.  It  is  a  thing  to  be  wondered  at; 
the  majesty,  profoundness,  and  far-reaching  and  mi- 
nute application  of  the  certainties,  by  divine  inference 
from  God's  Being,  driven  down  into  the  human  mind, 
through  these  sentences  of  the  words  of  Christ;  re- 
corded on  purpose  that  the  believers  in  God  may  build 
an  Eternal  City  of  Truth  upon  them. 

After  they  are  thus  given,  each  individual  soul 
must  be  the  builder  of  his  own  house  of  worship 
out  of  them;  for  they  are  given  and  settled  for  the 
whole  world;  for  the  foundations  of  faith  in  God, 
that  men  may  receive  salvation  from  Him  through 
Christ  as  the  gift  of  eternal  life,  the  salvation  fi'om 
eternal  death.  The  eternal  consequences,  and  a  be- 
lief in  them,  become  collateral  assurances,  inferences, 
and  seals,  for  every  mind  that  possesses  the  govern- 
ing idea  and  conviction  of  an  eternal  existence  and  re- 
sponsibihty  to  God.  On  this  possession,  as  the  inde- 
structible foundation  of  His  own  ajipeal  to  the  human 
mind  and  on  this  desire  of  everlasting  happiness  Je- 
sus Christ  built,  with  infinite  persuasion,  for  a  divine 
eternal  reality.  These  were  the  spiritual  ringbolts  in 
the  substance  of  the  soul,  as  made  originally  in  the 
image  of  God,  by  which  to  fasten  the  very  constitution 
of  the  mind  of  every  believer  to  the  anchor  of  Hope, 
"  entering  into  that  within  the  veil,  whither  the  Fore- 


44       God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity. 

runner  is  for  us  entered.  Jesus,  our  High  Priest,  con- 
secrated for  evermore,  and  ever  living  to  make  inter- 
cession for  us." 

And  so  did  Moses,  by  divine  appointment  and 
inspiration  before  Christ,  buUd  and  intercede ; — 
Moses,  who  vras  also,  lilie  Christ,  "faithful  to  Him 
that  apj)ointed  him,  in  all  his  house,  as  a  servant,  for 
a  testimony  of  those  things  which  were  to  be  spoken 
after.  "^ — Heb.  iii.  5. 


VII. 

THE  TEACHING  OF  THE  HEBREWS  BY  THE  SI- 
LENCE OF  GOD — A  DIVIDING  FIRMAMENT  BE- 
TWEEN FALSEHOOD  AND  DIVINE  TRUTH — 
THE  REALITIES  OF  SPIRITUAL  WICKEDNESS 
IN   HIGH   PLACES. 

It  has  been  undeniably  proved  by  modern  research 
and  discovery  that  the  Egyptians  possessed  the  knowl- 
ed'ge  of  immortality  and  a  future  state  of  retribution, 
and  had  their  own  Book  of  the  Dead,  with  trials  and 
verdicts  and  judgments  in  the  world  to  come.  Every 
Hebrew  in  the  time  of  Moses  must  have  been  familiar 
with  the  particulars  of  their  l(M  things,  their  ideas  of 
what  was  to  be  beyond  the  grave,  as  well  as  the  rites 
of  their  bestial  worship  in  this  life.     But  all  their  sys- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       ^5 

tern  was  so  inextricably  corrupted  and  depraved  by  the 
most  degraded  of  all  idolatries,  mythologies,  and  su- 
perstitions, demoralizing  the  very  moralities  of  life, 
and  consecrating  its  immoralities,  that  the  God  of  the 
Hebrews  did  not  permit  Moses  even  to  refer  to  the 
actual  truths  connected  with  the  vast  system  of  the 
Egyptian  priesthood;  for  this  would  have  been  to 
bind  falsehood  and  truth  together  as  a  compound 
power  upon  the  reason  and  conscience,  even  toward 
God. 

God  constrained  Moses  to  set  His  clock  of  human 
conduct  and  behef  by  the  attributes  of  God  as  re- 
vealed to  Adam,  Enoch,  Noah,  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob,  with  never  a  reference  to  any  divine  truths 
learned  from  the  Egyptians.  This  accounts  for  the 
reticence  as  weU  as  the  minuteness  and  exacting  pre- 
cision of  the  insj3U'ed  records.  The  reticence,  to  indi- 
cate the  unsearchable  wisdom  and  holiness  of  the 
invisible  Jehovah,  not  to  be  set  forth  by  graven  im- 
ages or  personifications;  the  minuteness,  to  expel  and 
forbid  the  horrid  cruelties,  abominable  practices,  and 
imbruting  will- worship  of  idolatry;  and  to  enthrone 
instead  thereof,  for  the  conscience  and  heart  of  the 
worshipper,  God's  own  apj)ointed  system  of  sacred 
rites,  full  of  the  symbohsm  of  divine  meaning,  and 
prophetic  of  the  Saviour  to  come. 

Men  have  therefore  needlessly  perplexed  themselves 


/f.6       God's  Timepiece  for  Alans  Eternity. 

with  discussing  the  possible  reasons  why,  if  the  truths 
of  immortality  and  a  judgment  to  come  were  known 
to  the  Egyptians,  Grod  did  not  more  definitely  appeal 
to  that  very  knowledge,  when  He  proclaimed  the  Dec- 
alogue by  Moses,  and  prepared  His  people  in  the  wil- 
derness for  the  Pi'omised  Land.  It  was  because  the 
Egyptian  heaven  was  like  Mohammed's,  nothing  but 
earth,  no  heavenly  horizon.  '  The  Hebrew  heaven  was 
"  THE  ErERNAii  GoD,  THY  KEFUGE,  and  Underneath  thee 
the  Everlasting  arms."  And  God,  in  His  new  crea- 
tion of  a  people  by  divine  truth  and  the  divine  Spirit, 
would  make  an  infinite  transparent  void  and  variance 
between  all  that  the  Hebrews  knew  in  and  from 
Egypt  and  its  priests,  and  all  that  God  had  revealed 
of  the  history  of  creation,  and  the  fall  of  man,  and  the 
antediluvians,  and  Noah  and  the  Patriarchs,  for  the 
worship  of  the  true  God  iu  sj^irit  and  in  truth.  He 
made  a  sejoarating  firmament  in  the  midst  of  the 
waters,  and  said,  "  Let  there  be  lights  in  the  firma- 
ment of  heaven,  to  divide  the  day  from  the  night." 

The  clouds  of  falsehood  and  corrupt  example  to 
which  they  had  been  accustomed  in  Egyj^t  were  so 
heavy  with  sense  and  sensual  imagery  and  passion, 
that  if  shut  up  to  that  medium  of  instruction  they 
could  neither  have  seen  God  through  it,  nor  have 
formed  to  themselves  any  righteous  concej)tions  of  the 
spiritual  and  never-ending  existence  of  the  soul.    And 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       ^7 

therefore  God,  for  their  own  good,  restricted  them  ia 
His  own  Word  to  the  revelation  of  Himself  as  the 
Eternal  and  infinitely  holy  Jehovah,  the  only  wise 
God;  and  made  the  disclosiu-e  of  themselves  to  them- 
selves, as  capable  of  knowing  God  only  by  loving  Him, 
and  of  hviiig  forever  only  in  His  blessed  likeness. 

Immortality  was  so  well  known  to  the  Hebrews, 
coming  up  from  Egypt,  that  it  was  an  atmosphere  of 
light  and  consciousness,  surrounding  ahke  the  evil 
and  the  good.  But  the  Egyptian  beliefs  and  habits 
of  a  brutal  transmigration  (souls  possessed  and  car- 
nalized and  thus  demonized  by  sense),  and  their  rit- 
uals accordingly, — and  the  corrupting  jpower  of  sen- 
suality carried  into  aU  their  speculations  concerning 
Eternity,  must  be  carefully  and  utterly  exterminated 
from  the  Hebrew  rules  of  a  divine  service.  The  Eter- 
nal God  was  to  be  revealed  in  His  infinite  oneness  and 
hoHness;  and  the  natiu'e  of  sin  against  God  was  to  be 
made  manifest,  and  Jehovah  was  to  be  brought  near 
to  them  in  His  Eternal  Love,  and  in  His  present  holy 
providences.  And  therefore  all  the  regulations  of 
life,  social,  poHtical,  economical,  in  work  and  worship, 
in  earthly  business  and  duty,  were  to  be  totally  dis- 
entangled from  idolatry,  in  abhorrence  of  its  customs 
and  its  teachings;  and  in  obedience  to  God's  statutes, 
were  to  be  interwoven  in  God's  service,  "  unto  the  ex- 
ample and  shadow  of  heavenly  things  and  good  things 


^8       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

to  come,"  in  assiu-ed  trust  for  God's  eternal  Mercy 
and  Grace. 

God  Himself,  and  the  forgiveness  of  the  soul,  and 
the  blessedness  of  His  never-ceasing  presence  and 
love  ("  if  Thy  presence  go  not  Avith  us,  carry  us  not  up 
hence  "),  were  what  He  did  and  would  bestow  forever; 
but  the  things  that  He  gave  now,  even  the  promised 
land,  and  prosj)erity  in  this  life,  were  only  earnests  of 
the  future,  things  by  the  way,  provisions  of  a  pilgrim- 
age. This  was  Abraham's  grand  and  glorious  theol- 
ogy, "  I  am  they  shield  (m  Time),  and  thine  exceeding 
great  reward  (in  Time  and  Eternity) ;  "  and  Moses  and 
the  Hebrews  knew  this,  as  well  as  the  great  Patri- 
arch, their  ancestor  by  covenant  with  God.  For  god- 
hness  had  then,  as  now,  the  promise  of  the  life  that 
now  is,  as  of  Ihat  which  is  to  come;  and  both  together. 

From  the  eternities  of  mud  and  materialism  God 
raised  behevers  in  Hun  up  to  a  life  of  practical  obedi- 
ence, under  the  clear,  austere  firmament  of  a  law  and 
precepts  requiring  fi-om  them  a  character  of  hoUness 
as  God  is  holy,  and  because  He  is  holy,  that  they  might 
be  fitted  to  live  foeevek  with  Him.  The  promised 
land  was  but  the  frame  of  an  invisible  future,  the 
telescope  of  faith  for  bringing  near  that  "  better  coun- 
try," alone  suited  to  their  immortal  nature,  brought 
into  communion  with  God ;  and  by  reason  of  their  be- 
lief in  that,  and  their  living  for  it  at  God's  Word,  as 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity.       ^g 

strangers  and  inlgrims  on  the  earth,  "  God  was  not 
ashamed  to  be  called  tlieii*  God,  for  He  had  prej)ared 
for  them  a  city." — Heb.  xi.  13,  16.  And  so  Jehovah 
disciphned  them  with  precepts  and  observances,  con- 
nected with  the  Decalogue  of  Love  to  God  and  man. 
and  jDrotected  them  as  with  a  coat  of  mailed  fire  from 
the  monstrous  lies  of  the  Egyj)tian  mythologies. 

He  had  set  them  apart,  as  in  a  standing-stool  of 
parental  care,  with  the  symbolism  of  Jacob's  dream- 
ladder  before  them,  let  down  fi"om  heaven,  trodden 
by  ascending  and  descending  angels.  He  dehvered 
them  from  the  tyranny  of  Pharaoh,  and  carried  them 
across  the  Red  Sea,  and  thi'ough  the  deadly  desert, 
by  miracles  of  His  own  divine  power,  hoHness,  and 
love,  and  taught  them  that  man  doth  not  hve  by 
bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out 
of  the  mouth  of  God.— See  Neh.  ix.  13,  14,  20.  He 
instructed  them,  and  the  whole  world  through  and 
after  them,  that  man  hath  a  higher  life  and  holier 
needs  of  immortality,  than  those  of  the  body,  for 
which  life  God's  grace,  forgiving  sin,  must  fit  him. 

The  very  reserve  of  a  divine  revelation,  leaving 
them  alone  with  God,  with  the  heart  and  conscience 
du'ected  towards  Him  only,  because  He  alone  was 
Jehovah,  theii'  God,  and  no  God  or  Saviour  besides 
Him,  and  because  their  true  Ufe  consisted  in  loving 
Him  and  keeping  His  commandments  out  of  gratitude 


^o       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

and  love,  was  a  spiritual  discipline  of  infinite  solemnity 
and  power.  The  silence  of  God,  and  the  thought, 
Thou  God  seest  me,  taught  them  more  concerning  thc^ 
reahties  of  Eternity  and  Immortality,  and  did  more  to 
wean  them  from  Egyptian  superstitions  and  fables, 
and  to  educate  their  souls  for  heaven,  than  if  there 
had  been  given  a  schedule  of  contrasted  eternal  felici- 
ties and  tortures  more  definite  than  those  of  Pagan, 
Mohammedan,  or  even  baj)tized  Papal  falsehoods. 

In  the  books  of  Judges,  Samuel,  Kings,  Chronicles, 
Proi^hets,  there  is  demonstrated  a  closeness  and  fury 
of  the  life-and-death  grapple  between  the  principal- 
ities and  j)owers  of  heaven  and  heU,  a  startling  near- 
ness and  reality  in  the  shock  and  flame  of  battle-life, 
unknown  in  our  day,  in  the  proximity  and  mixture, 
the  confusion  and  meUe  of  Pagans  and  Christians,  idol- 
aters and  worshippers  of  God.  Take  Elijah's  life  of 
deadly  conflict  with  Ahab,  Jezebel,  and  Baal  for  illus- 
tration. But  the  literature  of  Devil-desjDotisms  before 
the  flood  (raS  jusQoSeiai  rod  SiaPoXov,  as  Paul  calls 
them,  Eph.  vi.  11),  has  not  come  down  to  us,  whatever 
of  that  nature  there  may  have  been  then. 

Nor  is  there  any  indication  in  the  Hebrew  beliefs  or 
literatui'e  sanctioning  any  compromise  or  indifference 
between  truth  and  error,  or  any  nullifying  of  the  for- 
ever widening  gulfs  and  consequences  between  holi- 
ness and  sin.     It  is  manifest  that  there  had  ever  been 


God's  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity.      5/ 

a  party  of  materialists,  whose  pleasures,  aspii'ations, 
and  beliefs  were  restricted  to  this  world;  but  that,  in 
the  hterature  of  better  instructed  spirits  there  was  al- 
ways the  known  reality  of  entu*ely  another  life,  and 
that  life  a  revelation  from  Jehovah,  the  ■VNaitten  Word 
of  God,  directing  aU  souls  to  Himself  in  faith  and 
prayer,  and  to  a  reliance  on  His  merciful  and  forgiv- 
inof  love  forever. 


YIII. 

DEMONSTRATIONS  FROM  THE  FIFTH  CHAPTER  OF 
JOHN'S  GOSPEI.-PRESENCE  OF  THE  SPIRIT  WITH 
THE  WORD— OBJECT  AND  EVIDENCE  OF  MIRACLES 
—PERSONAL  EXPERIMENTS  AND  PROOFS  REQUISITE 
FOR  ETERNAL  LIFE. 

The  fifth  chapter  of  John's  Gospel  is  a  demonstra- 
tion (1)  of  the  unity  and  divine  inspiration  of  the 
Scriptures  both  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
and  (2)  of  the  unity  of  God  in  Christ  and  Christ 
in  God,  as  the  same  in  person,  attributes,  authority 
and  power.  And  yet  how  remarkable  that  the  whole 
train  of  argument  and  instruction  grows  out  of  the 
healing  of  the  impotent  man  at  Bethesda,  followed  hy 
the  persecuting  fury  of  the  Jews  against  Christ,  because 
He  had  wrought  that  miracle  of  divine  mercy  on 
the   Sabbath    day;    and    had  justified  His  work  by 


^2       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

such  an  assertion  of  His  oneness  in  power  and  being 
with  the  Father,  as  "made  Himself  equal  with  God." 
Then  followed  Christ's  affirmation  of  its  being  really 
God's  will  "  that  all  men  should  honor  the  Son  even 
as  they  honor  the  Fathei',"  and  His  offer  of  the  gift 
of  eternal  life  to  every  believer  in  His  own  "Word. 
Here  are  some  of  the  great  connecting  links  of  this 
vast  and  mighty  argument.  "My  Father  worketh 
hitherto,  and  I  work.  He  that  heareth  My  Word, 
and  believeth  on  Him  that  sent  Me,  hath  everlast- 
ing hfe.  But  I  receive  not  testimony  from  man. 
The  Father  Himself  which  hath  sent  Me  hath  borne 
witness  of  me.  But  these  things  I  say,  that  ye  might 
be  saved.  Search  the  Scriptures,  for  in  them  ye  think 
ye  have  eternal  life.  And  they  are  they  that  testify  of 
Me.  And  ye  will  not  come  to  Me,  that  ye  might 
have  life." 

The  axioms  of  thought  and  belief  so  announced  are 
themselves  a  demonstration  from  Christ,  comj^rehend- 
ing  these  conclusions,  namely,  1.  No  testimony  ad- 
mitted or  possible  fi'om  man.  2.  Then  God  Himself 
must  give  it.  3.  God  hath  given  it.  4.  The  Scrip- 
tures are  God  testifying.  5.  Theu-  testimony  is  con- 
cerning Christ.  6.  It  is  for  eternal  life.  7.  Life  only 
in  Christ.  8.  For  this,  men  are  to  search  the  Scrip- 
tures, for  they  alone  testify  of  Him.  And,  9,  All  men 
who  hear  Christ  know  what  the  ScriptAPes  are. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.      ^j 

These  Scriptures,  being  the  testimony  of  God,  were 
not  a  vague  or  doubtful  quantity,  when  Christ  was 
speaking  on  earth,  but  absolute,  and  absolutely 
known,  and  referred  to  as  containing  the  indisputable 
postulates  of  all  right  reasoning  in  regard  to  God, 
Christ,  eternity,  and  the  destiny  and  duty  of  the  soul. 
These  Scriptures,  known  then  as  the  Word  of  God, 
are  Christ's  credentials  now  of  divine  testimony  and 
authority  solely  from  God.  In  them  God's  Word,  in- 
faUible,  neither  asks  nor  receives  man's  sanction  or 
support,  any  more  than  God  the  Creator  can  ask  or 
receive  authentication  as  God  from  man  the  creature. 

In  that  Word  itself  which  is  demonstrated  by 
Chi'ist,  we  are  informed  that  the  Holy  Spii'it  of 
God  who  gave  it  is  attendant  on  the  Word,  and  is 
a  divine  witness  and  interpreter  in  the  heart  of  the 
believer.  Comparing  Isaiah  Iv.  8-11,  and  lix.  21,  we 
have  the  infallibility  of  the  Word  of  God,  along  with 
the  ever  accompanying  presence  and  witness  of  the 
Spu-it  of  God;  a  presence  and  witness  which  could 
never  be  given  to  an  erroneous  or  fallible  utter- 
ance or  record.  "As  for  Me,  this  is  My  covenant 
with  them,  saith  the  Lord.  My  SiDuit  that  is  upon 
thee,  and  My  Word  which  I  have  put  in  thy  mouth, 
shaU  not  depart  out  of  thy  mouth,  nor  out  the  mouth 
of  thy  seed,  nor  of  thy  seed's  seed,  saith  the  Lord, 
from  henceforth  and  forever." 


5^       Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

This  presence  of  the  Spii-it  with  the  word,  is  in 
like  manner  assured  by  the  Lord  Jesus  to  every 
believer  in  Him,  as  constituting  a  sure,  sufficient 
and  pei*petual  guide,  no  matter  whether  there  be 
any  other  external  testimony  or  not.  The  evidence 
of  the  Word  is  in  itself,  by  the  Holy  Spirit  that  in- 
sj)ired  it;  known  as  God's  hght,  not  by  man's  tes- 
timony, but  by  its  own,  which  is  God's.  God  speaks 
and  it  is  done.  The  volume  of  the  Book,  from  Gen- 
esis to  the  ApocalyjDse,  is  for  all  time,  to  all  souls, 
an  omnipresent,  omniscient  voice  and  spirit,  for 
ever. 

Miracles  are  as  the  ringing  of  God's  bell,  to  call 
men  to  hear  God's  voice;  as  the  burning  bush  made 
Moses  turn  aside  to  see  that  great  sight;  and  when 
men  begin  to  attend  and  hear,  then  the  inward  wit- 
ness of  the  SjDirit  goes  with  the  outward  utterance, 
which  itseK  becomes  an  inward  breathing  of  the  way, 
the  truth,  the  life,  carrying  the  same  conviction  of 
spiritual  verity,  as  the  consciousness  of  voluntary 
motion  does  of  physical  existence  and  reality. 

God's  Word  being  thus  inbreathed,  and  demonstrated 
by  a  new  spu-itual  creation  and  life  of  the  soul,  the 
possession  and  consciousness  of  its  j)0wer  are  depend- 
ent on  individual  faith  and  experience,  by  the  Holy 
Spu'it;  and  its  knowledge  j)Ossesses  this  superiority, 
above  all  pretences  and  antitheses  of  science,  falsely 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       55 

so  called,  that  it  is  placed  so  entirely  at  tlie  com- 
mand and  disposal  of  every  believer,  that  the  way- 
faring man  though  a  fool  need  not  err  in  regard  to 
it,  nor  ever  be  without  its  saving  light. 

All  the  miracles  are  wrought  for  us  as  truly  as 
for  those  who  first  beheld  them;  and  the  Word  of 
God  is  spoken  to  us;  just  as  Christ  said  to  the 
Jews,  Moses  wrote  unto  you;  and  the  Sadducees  said, 
Moses  wrote  unto  us;  and  Christ  said.  Have  ye  not 
read  that  which  was  spoken  unto  you  by  God,  saying, 
etc.  (Matt.  xxii.  31).  Thus  the  Word  is  a  j^resent 
utterance  of  God  to  all  mankind  in  all  generations, 
as  personal  and  dii'ect  as  if  now  first  spoken;  and  so 
the  miracles  are  present  miracles.  And  we  ourselves 
are  co-workers  with  God  of  them,  as  well  as  believ- 
ers in  them,  the  greatest  of  them  being  that  of  a 
personal  regeneration.  When  we  have  read  enough 
in  the  Scriptures  to  begin  to  understand  their  object 
and  plan,  then  we  perceive  that  the  mii-acles  recorded 
necessarily  grow  out  of  the  revelation  itself,  in  its 
life  and  nature,  and  are  natural  to  it.  Supernatural 
in  themselves,  they  are  natiu'al  to  God's  Word,  which 
could  never,  with  its  provision  and  gift  of  life  eternal, 
and  its  assurance  of  forgiveness,  be  established,  be 
made  credible,  without  them.  The  spii'itual  pur- 
pose of  the  book  requu*es  and  justifies  them,  and  its 
success  demonstrates  them.     Forgiveness  of  sin  is  its 


^6       God's  Timepiece  for  Ma7is  Eternity. 

object,  and  to  get  men  to  believe  and  accept  forgive- 
ness, its  mightiest  work,  the  greatest  of  all  miracles; 
and  common  miracles,  vrorks  of  supernatural  power, 
vouchers  of  omnipotence,  are  essential  to  prove  that 
God  offers  forgiveness,  and  is  capable  of  it,  to  the 
greatest  of  sinners. 

But  here  we  have  to  remember  that  the  only  pos- 
sible self-satisfying  test  and  proof  of  the  Word  of  God 
in  each  man's  case  is  personal.  When  we  have  ful- 
filled the  commands  given  as  to  its  use,  then  we  shall 
KNOW.  For  God's  own  directions,  with  which  His 
Word  is  committed  to  oiu-  trust,  for  ourselves  and 
others,  are  not  to  be  mistaken — being  in  every  man's 
power.  They  are  Christ's  instructions,  as  the  all- 
wise  and  merciful  Physician  of  the  soul,  and  are 
plainer  and  more  precious  than  ever  were  given  to 
accompany  any  medicine  of  sovereign  and  life-restor- 
ing energy.  God  provides,  commands,  and  works  the 
miracle;  we  demonstrate  it.  Herein  is  the  combina- 
tion human  and  divine,  as  in  the  text,  "  Work  out  your 
own  salvation,  for  it  is  God  that  worketh  in  you." 

The  demonstration  of  its  efficacy  consists  inevitably, 
fii-st,  in  its  being  used;  second,  according  to  the  direc- 
tions. For  it  is  confessedly  a  spiritual  medicine,  for 
the  healing  and  forgiveness  of  the  soul;  good  for 
nothing  else,  proved  by  nothing  less,  but  ordered  and 
administered   by   the   Divine    Physician,    who   would 


GocCs  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       5/ 

neither  prepare  nor  send  it  without  His  own  teach- 
ings how  to  take  it,  nor  could  it  be  efficacious  with- 
out being  taken  according  to  those  instructions. 

Suppose  your  physician  prescribes  a  medicine  to 
be  taken  by  the  tablespoonful  every  three  hoiu's.  The 
demonstration  of  its  efficacy  is  in  taking  it  in  that 
way.  If  it  were  applied  to  the  temples,  instead  of 
being  swallowed,  it  woiild  fail.  Suppose  the  accom- 
panying direction  to  be  that  the  patient,  every  time 
he  took  it,  should  name  over  it  the  name  of  the  phy- 
sician, and  ask  him  to  accompany  it  with  a  blessing 
by  the  spell  of  his  power.  That,  you  will  say,  would 
be  superstition.  But  supj)ose  the  use  of  the  Bible  to 
be,  as  dii'ected  by  its  Author,  with  inward  prayer  to 
God  for  the  presence  and  blessing  o*  His  Spirit,  He 
having  given  His  Word  with  that  essential  qualifica- 
tion. That  would  not  be  superstition,  but  a  perfectly 
reasonable  and  infinitely  valuable  and  blessed  condi- 
tion and  proof,  because  it  brings  the  inquiring  soul, 
that  is  seeking  for  heahng  and  forgiveness,  directly 
to  God,  in  communion  with  God's  own  love,  God's 
own  Spu'it.  But,  superstition  or  not,  reasonable  or 
not,  in  a  man's  judgment,  if  that  were  the  dkection, 
no  man  could  be  supposed  to  know  the  truth  without 
minding  that  rule ;  or  to  prove  the  value  of  the  medi- 
cine without  seeking  God  in  it.  But,  minding  that 
rule,  taking  the  medicine  with  prayer,  he  needs  no 


^<S       God's  Timepiece  for  Maris  Eternity. 

other  evidence.  The  divine  23C)wer  goes  with  the  di- 
vine word.  And  so,  the  science  of  divine  truth  is  the 
most  perfectly  exj)erimental  of  all  sciences,  for  every 
man  is  indejoendeut  of  every  other  man,  and  of  all 
power  but  God's,  and  comes  instantly  and  directly  to 
the  Author  and  Master  of  all  science  and  life. 

It  is  the  experiment  of  a  medicine  for  eternal  life. 
Plainly,  the  word  eternal  conveys  the  whole  worth, 
importance,  and  necessity  of  the  medicine,  and  of  the 
exjxrimenl  with  it.  Either  is  worthless,  except  with 
the  other.  The  living  knowledge  and  regenerating 
power  of  the  Word,  as  life  eternal,  are  to  be  wrought 
in  the  soul,  only  by  iDersonally  knowing  Christ,  and 
trusting  and  loving  Him  as  He  is,  and  obeying  His 
Word  as  God's  Word. 

Without  this,  if  any  one  should  ask  you.  Can  you 
tell  me  whether  this  proclaimed  sijecific  is  genuine, 
whether  it  is  good  for  mine  or  any  disease;  what 
could  you  say,  but  that  you  know  nothing  about 
it  ?  But  if  you  yourself  had  taken  it,  and  found  it  an 
elixir  of  life,  if  it  had  restored  you  to  health,  if  you 
had  found  the  natiu'e  of  it,  and  the  manner  of  its 
power,  in  your  own  case  by  experiment,  then  cordd 
you  answer,  with  the  conviction  of  your  own  renewed 
existence,  that  a  divine  power  was  in  it,  and  a  divine 
blessing  upon  it.  This  was  David's  certainty.  "  Ke- 
store  unto  me  the  joy  of  Thy  salvation;  then  will  I 


God's  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eter7iity.       5p 

teach  transgressors  Thy  ways,  and  sinners  shall  be 
converted  unto  Thee." 

Now  then,  the  evidence  of  the  "Word  of  God,  incom- 
plete and  worthless  without  Christ,  is  infinitely  per- 
fect and  fulfilled  eternally  in  Him;  and  satisfactory  in 
the  personal  experiment  of  the  soul  coming  to  Him, 
even  if  only  with,  "  Lord,  I  believe,  help  Thou  mine 
unbelief."  The  central' proof-light  is  Christ  in  the 
gospels.  The  light  and  the  hfe  flow  from  Him  as  the 
fountain;  and  from  Him  also  radiates  all  the  light, 
which,  falling  upon  other  beings  or  things,  both  re- 
vecds  them  and  constitutes  in  them  a  species  of  demon- 
stration in  regard  to  Himself;  an  effulgence  of  testimony 
coming  from  Him  originally,  and  reflected  back  to  Him, 
pointing  to  its  source.  Not  more  certainly  does  the 
tracing  of  a  stream  conduct  you  to  its  fountain,  its 
spring,  than  the  pui'suit  of  real  evidence  in  regard 
to  God's  Word  brings  you  always  to  Christ.  The  old 
painters  were  wont,  in  theu-  representations  of  the 
Holy  Family  to  make  all  the  light  in  the  painting  is- 
sue from  the  Babe,  Christ  Jesus;  by  the  hght  flowing 
from  His  form  all  things  else  were  seen,  and  aU  per- 
sons were  beheld  gazing  towards  Him,  and  doing 
Him  homage.  All  the  potentates,  aU  the  wise  men,  all 
the  nations  of  the  world  assembled  together,  could 
give  no  testimony  as  to  this  Babe  being  the  incar- 
nate God  and  Savioiu*  of  mankind,  nor  how  this  mys- 


6o       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

tery  came  to  be  revealed.  No  man  ever  saw  or  knew 
it,  any  more  than  any  man  could  have  belield  or  im- 
agined God's  creation  of  the  universe.  And  such  is 
the  reality  of  the  Word  of  God. 


IX. 


CONSEQUENT  INFALLIBILITY  AND  INDEPENDENCE  OF 
THE  WORD  ABOVE  ALL  HUMAN  TESTIMONY— ILLUS- 
TRATION FROM  THE  WATCH. 

Man  can  no  more  be  a  witness  that  God  spake  this 
word,  that  this  word  is  God's  Word,  than  he  can  that 
God  created  the  sun,  or  that  this  sun  is  God's  sun. 
And  what  one  man  cannot  do,  ten  thousand  men  can- 
not, in  whatever  form,  or  with  whatever  assump- 
tion of  authority  they  might  be  combined  together. 
No  church,  nor  all  the  churches  on  earth,  can  give 
God's  Word  its  authority,  or  prove  its  infallibihty; 
but  the  Word  itself  judges  the  Church,  tries  the 
Church,  proves  the  Church;  just  as  the  testimony 
of  man  cannot  make  the  sun  shine,  nor  give  authority 
to  the  Hght;  but  the  sun  itself  discloses  men,  and  they 
see  one  another  only  by  that  light,  and  could  read 
one  another's  evidence  only  by  that  hght. 

The  men  that  hved  three  thousand  years  ago  might 
teU  us  that  then  the  sun  was  shining,  and  could  de- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       6i 

scribe  liow  the  world  looked  in  its  ligbt;  but  such 
testimony  is  no  evidence  to  us  that  God  made  the 
sun,  no  ground  of  our  belief  that  God  made  the  sun. 
We  know  tliai,  by  the  sun  itself,  which  is  a  greater 
testimony  of  and  for  God,  than  any  word  of  man,  or 
of  the  whole  race  of  men  can  be. 

And  just  so,  we  know  from  Jesus  Christ,  that  it  is 
God's  own  Word,  and  not  from  any  word  or  witness- 
ing of  man.  If  all  recorded  history,  all  books  of  men, 
all  knowledge  of  our  race  from  human  testimony  apart 
from  the  Scrij)tures  were  annihilated,  that  would  not 
diminish  the  truth  and  power  of  those  Scriptures,  tes- 
tified by  Christ  to  be  God's  Scriptures;  so  that,  if 
God's  Word  were  as  completely  separated  from  all  hu- 
man testimony  as  the  sun  itself  is  separated  from  our 
globe,  we  knowing  it  only  by  its  shining,  that  would 
make  no  difference  as  to  its  being  God's  Word,  nor 
as  to  the  power  of  its  light,  the  clearness  of  its  shin- 
ing, and  our  knowledge  of  its  being  from  God. 

This  then  is  the  sole,  sovereign,  independent  foun- 
tain of  Living  Truth,  a  perj)etual  heritage  of  life,  that, 
"  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of 
God,  man  may  live."  Here  it  is,  and  God's  covenant 
of  His  Spirit  forever  co-present  with  it.  It  must  be 
definite  and  stable,  to  be  matter  of  such  a  covenant, 
and  it  must  be  infallible,  to  be  a  covenant  forever.  It 
was  never  recorded  or  discovered  elsewhere  on  the 


62       Gods  Timepiece  f 01"  Alan's  Eternity. 

earth,  nor  ever  committed  in  trust,  nor  gathered  in 
by  traditions  or  fragments  from  any  other  sources. 
It  Avas  never  given  to  the  diviners  of  Babylon,  nor 
to  okl  Mesopotamian  astrologers  or  astronomers,  nor 
to  the  soothsayers  or  fire-worshipping  magi  of  the 
east,  nor  to  Chinese  moralists,  or  Indian  mystics,  or 
self-torturing  or  self-indulgent  idolaters  of  Baal  or 
Ashtaroth  in  any  age  or  nation  in  the  world.  The 
inspiration  of  the  Almighty  is  only  here,  and  here 
only  for  the  redemption  of  guilty  and  lost  man,  only 
for  the  revelation  of  a  Saviour. 

This  is  the  Divine  gift  and  inspired  description  of 
that  anchorage  for  the  soul,  "  which  is  sure  and  stead- 
fast, and  entering  into  that  within  the  veil."  Let 
us  endeavor  to  illustrate  this  blessed  and  life-giving 
independence  of  the  Woed  alone,  our  Timepiece  for 
Eternity,  by  an  argument  from  the  watch,  which 
every  man  carries  with  him,  for  his  knowledge  of 
the  time  of  day. 

The  Watch  is;  no  matter  where  it  came  from. — ^If 
you  found  a  watch  by  the  way-side,  or  under  the  crag 
of  a  mountain,  or  in  a  cave  by  the  sea-shore,  or  in  an 
excavated  subterranean  sej^ulchre,  and  it  were  the  first 
watch  ever  known,  or  of  which  there  was  ever  any 
record  in  the  world  that  had  come  to  your  knowl- 
edge, and  if,  after  much  study  by  many  minds  upon 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       6j 

it,  jou  had.  found  out  its  use  and  meaning;  would 
you  have  any  doabt  that  it  was  made  for  that  use, 
or  that  one  mind  designed  it?  And  if  you  found 
the  name  of  the  maker  inscribed  upon  it,  should  you 
have  any  doubt  that  he  made  it?  Would  you  need 
any  vouchers,  any  witnesses,  except  the  watch  itself? 
Would  the  absolute  vacuum  of  testimony  elsewhere 
in  regard  to  the  watch  prevent  you  fi-om  believing 
that  it  was  a  watch,  that  it  was  made  to  keep  time, 
and  that  it  was  made  by  the  person  declared  to  be 
its  artificer? 

On  examination,  you  would  find  that  it  was  not 
aU  made  at  once,  that  it  was  made  in  parts,  and  jDut 
together,  and  that  some  wheels  were  made  to  strike 
into  other  wheels,  and  set  them  a-going.  You  would 
find,  moreover,  a  mainspring,  giving  motion  to  the 
whole.  You  would  find  balances,  levers,  compensa- 
tions, and  a  most  curious,  involved,  and  accurately 
calculated  adjustment  of  mechanical  powers.  You 
would  find  jDrojDhetic  assurances  and  designs  in  one 
jjart  of  the  watch  fulfilled  in  another  part.  You 
would  find  that  it  could  be  taken  asunder,  and  each 
part  laid  by  itself.  And  you  would  find  some  parts 
made  out  of  materials  which  you  had  reason  to  be- 
lieve were  discovered  -and  brought  into  use  much 
earher  than  the  materials  employed  in  other  parts; 
and  you  would   find  some   parts  that  seemed  older 


64       God's  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity. 

in  theii*  construction  than  other  parts.  But  would 
any  of  these  facts  prevent  you  fi-om  beheving  that 
all  the  watch  came  from  one  maker,  fi'om  one  de- 
sign, comprehending  and  giving  unity  to  all? 

Furthermore,  you  would  find  portions  of  the  watch 
that  might  appear  not  absolutely  essential  to  it,  and 
some  things  that  might  be  taken  away  from  it,  with- 
out preventing  it  from  going,  or  hindering  its  j)rac- 
tical  use;  just  as  some  persons  imagine  that  certain 
chapters  in  the  first  or  second  book  of  Chronicles, 
or  both,  or  perhaps  the  whole  book  of  Canticles,  or 
some  catalogues  of  names,  might  be  dropped  out  from 
the  Bible,  without  any  apj)arent  injury,  and  without 
diminishing  its  usefulness.  And  you  would  also  find 
portions  of  the  watch,  of  which,  at  first,  you  would 
not  be  able  to  discover  the  use, — -portions  indeed 
that  you  would  be  ready  to  set  down  as  mistakes, 
or  ignorances  of  some  one  who  did  not  know  his 
business.  In  the  regulator  you  might  discover  proofs 
of  imperfection  or  intimations  that  the  watch  was  to 
be  confided  to  the  care  of  persons  who  must  daily 
wind  it  up,  and  guard  against  its  gaining  or  losing 
time. 

But  would  this  discovery,  or  rather  this  want  of  a 
perfect  intelligence  on  your  part,  lead  you  to  the 
conclusion  that  those  portions  were  not  made  by 
the    maker    of   the    watch?     You    would   find    some 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.      6^ 

parts  without  the  name  of  the  maker  on  them,  or 
any  indication  in  themselves  that  they  came  from 
his  hand;  just  as  you  may  find  chapters  in  the  Bible 
without  any  such  indication,  the  whole  Book  of  Esther 
without  mention  of  the  name  of  God;  but  would  that 
ever  suggest  the  imagination  that  He  did  not  make 
them,  or  did  not  mean  them,  or  that  some  one  else 
added  them  without  His  intention?  Is  there  a  sin- 
gle wheel  in  the  works,  or  pin  in  the  machinery  not 
there  by  plan  and  purj)ose  of  the  maker?  He  may 
not  indeed  have  made  the  watch-case  with  his  own 
hands,  but  it  was  certainly  made  for  his  work,  and 
so  made  under  his  direction,  by  his  will,  as  to  be 
a  fit  and  proper  covering  and  protection  for  the 
watch,  though  not  an  essential  part  of  it. 

Finally,  there  might  be  parts  of  the  watch,  in  re- 
gard to  which  you  might  have,  or  might  find,  some 
testimony  elsewhere,  in  some  part  of  history,  in 
some  art  or  science,  in  the  historical  record  of  some 
age,  by  a  writer  regarded  as  a  competent  witness; 
some  testimony  showing  that  those  parts  had  existed, 
though  afi^ording  no  reference  to  the  whole  watch, 
and  giving  no  indication,  from  such  writer,  of  his 
knowing  that  there  rms  a  watch.  Thus  there  may 
be  quotations  in  very  ancient  Pagan  writers  from 
particular  books  in  the  Old  or  New  Testament, 
without   any   reference  to  the  whole  volume  of  Di- 


66       God's  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity. 

vine  Inspiration.  Could  you  take  tliose  jaarticular 
parts  of  the  watch  aside,  and  feel  that  you  had  any 
better  evidence  in  regard  to  them,  as  being  the 
work  of  the  maker  of  the  watch,  than  in  regard  to 
the  whole  watch? 

Would  you  for  a  moment  imagine  that  the  proof 
of  the  whole  watch  being  from  the  maker,  the  per- 
son declared  as  the  maker,  depended  in  the  slight- 
est degree  upon  that  human  testimony  as  to  the 
former  existence  of  certain  parts  of  it?  Or  if  all 
human  testimony  as  to  the  watch,  and  every  part 
of  it,  were  blotted  out,  if  no  being  and  no  age  could 
be  found  with  any  record  or  vestige  whatever  in 
regard  to  it,  would  thai  ui  the  slightest  degree  shake 
your  confidence  that  the  watch  was  really  made,  and 
made  by  one  man,  that  is,  with  one  master's  design 
and  du'ection,  however  many  hands  may  have  been 
employed  in  perfecting  its  separate  parts,  and  pre- 
paring them  to  be  put  together  in  the  one  designed 
whole.  You  would  find  that  the  watch  keeps  time; 
you  would  feel  perfectly  convinced  that  that  was 
the  object  of  it;  you  would  find  the  hours  and  the 
minutes  marked  on  the  dial  in  it;  and  you  would 
have  no  doubt  in  regard  to  its  purpose,  its  value, 
its  wondrous  ingenuity,  its  unity  of  design  and  con- 
struction. You  would  regard  any  man  as  a  fool, 
who  should  tell  you  that  it  sprang  forth  as  a  nat- 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       Sy 

•ural  product  of  the  evolution  of  forces,  by  the  co- 
hesion of  natural  selection. 

And  though  there  is  not  a  particle  of  evidence, 
except  in  itself,  who  the  author  was,  nor  the  least 
trace  of  any  external  testimony  in  regard  to  such 
a  person  ever  having  existed  in  the  world,  yet  you 
would  have  no  more  doubt  as  to  his  being  the  au- 
thor, than  you  would  have  as  to  the  existence  of 
the  watch  itself.  You  would  have  no  reason  for 
doubting,  nothing  to  suggest  a  doubt,  nothing  in 
the  watch,  nothing  out  of  it.  It  is  a  unity  of  art 
and  skni,  design  and  wisdom,  unaccountable  and 
incomprehensible  on  any  other  supj^osition  than  that 
of  one  and  the  same  purpose  and  authority  in  all 
the  parts  and  authorship  of  its  being. 

The  argument  of  Chance. — ^But  now  suppose  that 
some  one  should  tell  you  that  after  all,  this  won- 
drous compound  product  of  forces  never  had  an 
author  at  all,  but  that  it  did  really  grow  of  itself 
by  correlation  and  conversion  of  energy;  that  that 
particular  species  of  time-keeper  never  had  a  cre- 
ator, never  was  constructed  by  sj)ecial  authority  or 
action  of  an  intelligent  designing  mind,  but  that 
it  was  evolved  from  a  preceding  construction  not 
so  perfect,  and  that  from  another  preceding  ma- 
chine  still  less   accurate,    and    that   from    one   quite 


68       God's  Timepiece  for  Alans  Eternity. 

clumsy  and  savage  in  the  comparison,  and  that 
from  a  mere  elastic  spring  in  the  Lore  of  a  barrel, 
or  a  bent  bow  struggling  to  get  loose.  Thus  you 
would  have  the  great-great-grandfather  of  watches, 
and  the  great-grandfather,  and  the  grandfather,  and 
the  father  and  the  son,  and  then  the  grandson, 
and  so  on,  in  a  regular  evolution  of  force  with  dif- 
ferentiation by  dii'ective  agency  of  natural  selection, 
tUl  you  have  at  length  evolved  the  convenient  and 
perfect  httle  creature  that  you  carry  in  your  vest 
pocket. 

But  you  are  hardly  yet  convinced.  And  now  sup- 
pose your  scientific  demonstrator  could  show  you  an 
old  Dutch  clock,  or  a  mediaeval  clock,  found  buried 
in  a  bed  of  sandstone  far  below  the  altitude  or  lo- 
cality where  the  watch  was  found,  and  should  assure 
you  that  that  particular  clock  was  one  of  the  pre- 
ceding genealogical  links  through  which  the  j^ai'- 
entage  of  the  watch  was  demonstrated  by  natural 
evolution  from  a  microscopically  discovered  bit  of 
antique  protoj)lasm;  so  that  the  landing-j^lace  of 
the  clock  might  occupy  a  position  relative  to  the  pre- 
ceding and  succeeding  developments  much  the  same 
as  the  marsujDials  or  great-grandfathers  of  the  mon- 
key tribes  occupy,  between  men  and  the  first  worm; 
so  that  the  hypothesis  of  a  special  construction  either 
of  the  watch  or  the  clock,  but  especially  the  watch, 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Etei'nity.       6g 

was  a  mere  miserable  assumption,  such  as  no  one 
but  a  savage,  content  to  gaze  at  phenomena  with- 
out tracing  their  connection,  wouki  for  a  moment 
entertain.  Would  you  dismiss  your  belief  in  a  de- 
signing mind,  that  you  are  sure  must  have  con- 
trived and  constructed  the  watch,  on  any  such  au- 
thority or  testimony  as  that  of  such  reasoning? 
Would  you  not  rather  dismiss  the  reasoning  itself, 
as  the  uncoiling  and  stagnation  or  dropping  loose 
of  the  nerves  of  a  shattered  brain,  the  beginning 
of  a  return  of  the  mind  into  chaos? 

But  suppose,  as  in  the  case  of  the  watch,  you  had 
found  the  rough  clock  of  the  Old  Testament  pre- 
ceding the  finished  watch  of  the  New,  in  an  evi- 
dently lower  stratum  of  the  universe  far  backward 
from  this  present  era.  Suppose  you  had  found  the 
Old  Testament,  as  a  record  of  God's  deahngs  with 
primeval  man,  ending  at  four  hundred  years  inter- 
val from  the  New  Testament  and  no  other  known 
connection  between  them,  save  only  the  manifest 
belonging  of  the  one  to  the  other,  and  the  playing 
of  the  one  into  the  other,  so  that  the  last  could 
not  possibly  be  accounted  for,  or  be  of  any  use 
without  the  first,  and  the  first  wovdd  be  proved  an 
unmeaning  riddle  or  convicted  falsehood  without 
the  last.  Would  not  that  discovery  absolutely  dem- 
onstrate  to   you  the   authorship   and   creatorship   of 


'/o       Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

both  volumes,  as  being  from  one  and  the  same  de- 
signing and  benevolent  intelligence?  "Would  that 
discovery  persuade  you  that  neither  of  these  vol- 
umes had  any  designing  special  creator,  but  that 
both  were  merely  products  of  the  force  of  evolu- 
tion in  strata  of  existence  and  of  thought,  eocene, 
miocene,  primary,  secondary,  tertiary,  glacial,  and 
post-glacial,  succeeding  one  another  by  process  of 
natural  selection  from  a  practical  eternity? 

The  argument  from  God. — Now  we  apply  all  this 
to  the  existence  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  its  entire 
independence,  as  His  Word,  of  all  external  testi- 
mony. Suppose  you  should  find  the  whole  vokime 
of  God's  Word,  just  as  we  have  it,  buried  in  a 
dry  well.  Or  suppose  it  should  have  been  found 
in  the  heart  of  Abyssinia,  or  beneath  a  crag  in  the 
Andes,  or  under  a  rock  on  the  summit  of  Mount 
Washington,  and  men  should  take  it  forth  and 
study  it,  and  find  out  the  coherence  of  its  parts, 
its  nature  and  purpose  as  the  law  of  human  dvity 
and  salvation,  its  record  of  the  creation  and  his- 
tory of  the  human  race,  with  the  fall  of  man,  and 
God's  sovereign  wisdom,  will,  and  merciful  pleasure 
revealed  in  the  government  and  redemption  of  the 
race  so  fallen;  its  authoritative  address  to  mankind, 
its   revelation   of  the   nature    of  morality  and  relig- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Alans  Eternity.       yi 

ion,  its  adaptation  to  the  conscience  and  condition 
of  humanity,  its  heavenly  benevolent  design  and 
unity,  wdth  its  announcement  of  God  as  the  Au- 
thor. And  suiDpose  that  aU  records  of  human  tes- 
timony save  this  only,  and  what  can  be  gathered 
from  its  study,  had  perished.  Suppose  that  no  vol- 
umes or  traditions  or  chain  of  witnesses  or  evi- 
dences from  man  remained,  in  regard  either  to  the 
construction  or  authorsliip  of  such  a  volume,  or  of 
any  part  of  it.  Yet  the  volume  itself  carries  its 
own  evidence,  declares  and  proves  its  design,  unity, 
and  Author. 

•  That  it  is  the  Word  of  God  and  not  man,  itself 
is  enough  to  prove.  There  are  things  in  it  beyond 
the  compass  of  the  human  mind  to  originate.  It 
is  as  clear  that  man  could  not  have  made  it,  as 
that  man  could  not  have  made  the  sun.  And  if  it 
has  God's  authority,  it  stands  on  God's  authority 
alone;  nothing  else  could  support  it.  No  human 
testimony  could  make  it  God's  Word,  or  make  it 
powerful  as  God's  Word,  if  it  were  not  God's  Word. 
A  forgery  would  detect  itself,  even  as  the  genuine 
reality  demonstrates  itself. 

In  the  process  of  this  examination  you  find,  as 
in  the  watch,  wheels  striking  into  other  wheels,  and 
setting  them  in  motion.  You  find  prophecies  and 
their    fulfilment.     You    find,    as    in    the   watch,   part 


7^       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

answering  to  part,  the  Old  Testament  playing  into 
the  New,  and  the  New  Testament  answering  to  the 
Old,  especially  in  the  incarnation,  character,  divine 
claims  and  demonstrations  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  as 
God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  Christ  revealing  God, 
Christ  the  Author  of  eternal  life.  You  find  the  ele- 
ments of  that  Hfe,  the  nature  of  true  holiness  and 
love,  the  hour  hand  and  the  minute  hand,  of  duty 
to  God  and  duty  to  man,  in  this  chronometer  of 
immortal  character;  and  you  find  the  mainsj^ring 
of  all  virtue,  God,  and  His  love,  and  the  seeking 
of  His  approbation  and  glory. 

You  find  the  prescribed  duties  for  man's  accept- 
ance with  God,  and  obedience  to  Him,  set  not  in 
human  authority,  by  human  precej^t  and  law,  nor 
taught  by  the  fear  of  man,  but  forbidden  to  be  so 
taught;  nothing  forced,  nor  basely  motived,  nor  os- 
tentatious, but  sympathizing,  disinterested,  every 
thought  an  ofi'ering  of  grateful  love,  every  hole 
jewelled,  every  pivot  turning  in  love  and  reason, 
on  princijjle,  everlasting,  immutable.  You  find  a 
moral  time-keeper  and  regulator  for  the  conscience, 
and  a  guide  to  everlasting  life.  You  discover  the 
design  of  this  wondrous  volume,  and  you  find  that 
on  obeying  it,  it  sets  you  right,  but  you  never  were 
right  before,  and  it  shows  j^ou  the  error  of  your 
way,  and  the  direction  of  the  only  right  way.     You 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       yj 

find  its  descriptions  of  yourself,  and  its  predictions 
as  to  yourself  fulfilled  in  yourself.  The  more  you 
study  it,  the  more  you  discover  its  wonderful  co- 
incidences, its  irresistible  j)Ower  of  demonstration 
and  conviction,  its  network  of  internal  evidence, 
both  telescopic  and  microscoiiic. 

Although  it  seems  a  small  casket  in  the  letter,  yet  it 
diffuses  a  flood  of  light.  The  nature  and  glory  of  that 
light  are  enough  to  prove  to  you  that  it  is  from  God, 
and  the  evidence  of  the  whole  human  race  could  not 
add  to  its  authority.  The  mere  evidence  of  man, 
fallible  man,  would  be  a  doubtful  element  in  that 
which  otherwise  is  irresistible.  Therefore  external 
testimony  is  admitted  only  as  a  gateway,  a  2^'>'opy- 
Iceum,  an  avenue  of  sphinxes,  in  order  that  your  faith 
should  not  stand  in  the  wisdom  of  man,  but  in  the 
power  of  God,  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and 
of  power  within  the  temple  of  the  Word.  Human 
learning,  external  research,  is  good  to  clear  away 
rubbish,  to  i^revent  prejudice,  to  gather  out  the 
stones,  to  prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord,  to  disen- 
tangle difficulties.  Good  sometimes,  as  Mr.  Berridge 
used  to  say,  to  silence  scorners,  or  as  a  stone  to 
throw  at  a  dog  to  stop  his  barking,  but  the  power 
is  within.  For  it  is  written,  "I  will  destroy  the  wis- 
dom of  the  wise,  and  bring  to  nothing  the  under- 
standing of  the  prudent."    Where  is  the  wise?    Where 


/^       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

is  the  scribe?  "WTiere  tlie  disputer  of  this  world? 
Hath  not  God  made  fooUsh  the  wisdom  of  this 
world?  Because  the  foolishness  of  God  is  wiser 
than  men,  and  the  weakness  of  God  is  stronger  than 
men,  and  in  no  conceivable  way  could  man  testify 
that  the  Word  of  God  is  God's  Word,  unless  you 
find  God's  own  authority  evident  in  itself,  apart  from 
man's  testimony. 

And  if  you  find  and  feel  tliat  (which  is  indeed  the 
witness  of  the  Sjiirit),  you  can  neither  mistake  nor 
doubt  it;  nor  do  you  ask  for  any  endorsement  of 
it,  nor  indeed  will  you  submit  to  any  such  suppo- 
sition as  that  it  is  not  in  itself  all-sufficient  and 
divinely  authoritative.  No  creature  shall  patronize 
it,  or  put  his  seal  upon  it.  It  needs  no  candle, 
neither  light  of  the  sun,  nor  of  the  moon,  to  shine 
in  it,  for  the  glory  of  God  doth  hghten  it,  and  the 
Lamb  is  the  hght  thereof.  When  you  are  sensible 
of  that  presence,  all  the  questions  as  to  canonical  or 
uncanonical,  as  to  whether  particular  books  have 
been  received  by  the  Church,  or  not  received,  go 
for  nothing.  When  the  Spirit  that  inspu'ed  the 
Word  insj)u-es  your  heart  to  behold  and  adore  its 
glory,  the  disputes  of  outside  traditionists  as  to  an- 
tiquities, seals,  councils,  are  of  httle  moment. 

Just  so,  in  a  watch,  to  determine  its  merit  and 
its  maker  you  would  pay  no  attention  whatever  to 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       y^ 


any  questions  or  conflicts  as  to  the  time  when  ru- 
bies or  diamonds  were  first  discovered,  or  cogged 
wheels  first  invented,  or  the  elastic  power  of  a  steel 
spring  first  put  to  use.  No  matter  for  all  that. 
There  is  the  watch,  a  perfect  watch,  declaring  its 
maker.  A  party  of  metaphysical  or  mechanical  wran- 
glers might  contend  that  the  watch  had  no  authority 
or  design,  because  there  was  no  proof  of  its  ever 
having  been  made  at  all,  or  of  certain  parts  of  it 
ever  having  been  in  existence  as  mechanical  appli- 
cations. But  that  is  notliing  to  you;  there  is  the 
watch,  and  it  could  not  have  grown  there,  as  an 
apple-  or  an  orange  grows.  And  just  so,  a  party  of 
theological  or  anti-theological  controversiahsts  may 
tell  you  that  the  Bible  has  no  authority,  unless  you 
can  find  a  church  that  can  give  you  some  account 
of  its  origin,  or  a  set  of  literary  or  scientific  wit- 
nesses that  can  give  you  some  history  of  such  or 
such  a  book,  or  of  aU  the  books. 

But  there  is  the  volume,  God's  own  Word,  and 
you  see  how  its  parts  are  inwrought  together,  how 
the  whole  coheres,  how  it  keeps  time,  how  it  is 
entirely  superior  to  human  evidence,  how  it  would 
not  work  one  whit  better,  if  it  had  the  literary  and 
historical  evidence  of  all  ages.  And  further,  you 
see  how,  if  its  wheels  did  not  play  with  infinite  ac- 
curacy, if  any  wheel  or  tooth  ran  against  the  cogs 


yd       God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity. 

of  any  otlier,  it  would  stop,  and  prove  itself  useless 
and  powerless,  even  thougli  all  the  writers,  witnesses, 
and  corporations  of  all  time  conspired  with  unbroken 
testimony  to  establish  its  divinity. 

We  see  at  once  how  impossible  to  demonstrate 
its  divineness,  if  God  Himself  did  not  establish  it,  if 
the  volume  itself  did  not  rightly  reveal  God,  and 
establish  its  own  authenticity  as  from  Him.  And  if 
God  HimseK  has  really  stamped  it  as  His  Word, 
all  the  vouchers  of  all  humanity  are  needless.  As 
the  Timepiece  of  humankind  for  eternity,  it  can 
go  alone ;  it  does  go  alone ;  it  does  not  go  any  better 
for  the  testimony  of  all  Christendom.  All  Christen- 
dom must  go  by  it,  or  Christendom  is  not  Chris- 
tianity. It  keeps  no  better  time  for  the  certificates 
of  all  generations,  whether  of  Chi'istendom  or  hea- 
thendom. It  judges  mankind,  not  mankind  it.  It  is 
the  ultimate  everlasting  authority,  the  court  of  last 
appeals. 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Maris  Eternity.      /^ 


X. 


CHRIST'S  TESTIMONY  COVERS  ALL  THE  SCRIPTURES- 
MAN'S  PERSONAL  EXPERIMENT  IN  PRAYER— CONSE- 
QUENCES OF  PROTESTING  GOD'S  DRAFTS. 

The  testimony  concerning  Christ  in  the  Scrip- 
tures extended  over  the  whole  range  of  those  Scrip- 
tures, from  Genesis  to  Malachi.  Its  infaUibiHty  was 
grounded  in  the  fact  that  all  those  Scriptures  were 
the  Word  of  God.  They  could  not  be  the  Word 
of  God  merely  in.  those  passages  which  Clu'ist  se- 
lected for  exposition,  and  the  testimony  of  man, 
and  fallible,  in  the  whole  course  of  providential  and 
historical  narrative,  any  more  than  the  sun,  moon, 
and  stars  could  be  the  work  of  God  in  their  primal 
elements,  their  light  and  life-giving  energy,  but  the 
work  of  man  in  their  orbits  and  periodic   motions. 

If  you  beHeve  that  God  made  the  light.  He  made 
aU  things.  He  made  the  correspondences  of  all  things 
with  the  light.  If  you  believe  that  the  utterances 
of  the  Old  Testament  concerning  Christ  were  the 
truth  of  God,  all  the  correspondences  and  roots  of 
that  truth  were  of  God  likewise. 

Carry  this  Divine  Word  to  the  Sandwich  or  South 
Sea  Islands  and  pour  its  Hght  upon  the  savages  there. 


/<?       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

Do  they  know  or  care  anything  about  canonicals,  au- 
thenticities, churches,  witnesses  ?  Not  one  word  of  all 
this  shall  be  mentioned,  but  the  Word  of  God  shall 
stand  separate  and  apart  from  every  human  record  and 
endorsement,  and  they  shall  feel  it  and  know  it  to  be 
God's  Word  when  simply  j)reached  by  God's  messen- 
gers with  His  Spirit.  The  Divine  Watch  goes  as  well, 
when  they  use  it,  without  a  solitary  voucher  as  to 
its  manufacture,  as  if  it  had  the  applauding  roar 
of  all  generations.  It  is  God's  Word,  and  it  needs 
no  witness  whatever  from  man,  save  God's  own  w^it- 
ness  by  His  own  Spii'it,  in  man.  It  would  have 
just  as  much  divinity  and  power  now,  though  all 
the  stream  of  history  were  cut  off  from  it,  as  it  ever 
had,  or  could  have,  with  all  the  libraries,  councils, 
and  conclaves  of  the  whole  world  attached  to  it. 
If  it  were  reduced  to  the  solitary  isolated  condition 
we  have  imagined,  and  were  discovered  without  a  hint 
in  regard  to  it  anywhere  else  in  the  world,  either  of 
tradition  or  of  history,  it  would  go  forth  conquering 
and  to  conquer. 

It  no  more  needs  man's  testimony,  than  a  watch 
needs  a  chain  of  seals  dangling  to  it  in  order  that 
you  may  believe  that  it  is  a  watch,  or  know  that 
it  keejDS  time.  God's  light  in  His  Word  is  as  inde- 
pendent of  man's  authority,  as  the  sunbeams  them- 
selves are  independent  of  the  certificates  of  the  Stock 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       yg 

Exchange.  Poor,  puny,  miserable  witlings  (if  that 
be  your  reliance),  with  your  winking  tapers  of  Church 
authority  held  ujd  to  prove  God's  Word,  to  shine  be- 
fore it,  ILke  farthing  rush-lights  in  the  noonday !  And 
yet,  the  j^apists  presume  to  tell  us  that  the  testimony 
of  their  Church  is  the  only  thing  that  can  sanction  God's 
Word,  or  prove  it  truly  divine.  We  might  as  well  take 
the  testimony  of  Pilate  as  the  only  proof  and  sanction 
of  the  veracity  of  Christ.  And  yet,  not  only  the  pa- 
pists, but  the  supporters  of  a  hierarchical  estabhshment 
under  other  forms  will  tell  men  that  we  cannot  sup- 
port and  defend  the  Bible,  unless  we  take  it  on  their 
authority,  and  their  Church  polity,  dominion,  and  gov- 
ernment along  with  it. 

Such  are  the  foundations  of  our  faith,  imj)regnable, 
unchangeable,  eternal.  This  being  the  case,  one  can- 
not but  marvel  at  the  facility  with  which  skeptical 
minds  and  books  can  produce  a  sensation  almost  as 
wide  as  Christendom  by  the  reconstruction  of  infi- 
delities and  errors  ten  times  exploded,  but  again 
strutting  on  the  stage,  and  challenging  fight  as  Go- 
liaths,  in  such  shapes  as  the  books  of  Strauss  and 
Kuenen,  Renan  and  Colenso,  or  of  men  who,  deny- 
ing a  divine  inspiration,  demand  that  you  come  down 
to  their  j)lane,  and  contend  on  their  premises. 

Others,  scoffing  at  prayer,  and  dogmatizing  with- 
out spiritual  experiments,  demand  a  demonstration  to 


8o       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

every  man's  senses,  wliicli  would  leave  no  room  for 
faith,  trust,  submission  to  the  divine  will  and  wisdom. 
The  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit 
of  God,  neither  can  he  know  them,  because  they  are 
sjylriiudhi  discerned,  and  he  does  not  apply  his  spiiitual 
faculties  in  the  methods  suited  to  them  and  required 
by  them,  but  only  the  methods  and  the  powers  of 
sense.  It  is  just  as  if  a  man  should  undertake  to  see 
the  heavens  and  study  astronomy  with  a  tube  of  sheet 
iron  instead  of  a  telescoj)e.  Our  mere  senses,  and 
men's  scientific  judgments  according  to  sense,  are  as 
inadequate  for  the  higher  truths  of  the  sovd,  and  of 
the  world  for  which  it  is  destined,  as  the  brass  and 
iron,  the  j)ullies  and  screws  of  Lord  Rosse's  great  tel- 
escope would  be  for  the  discovery  of  the  stars,  with- 
out the  converging  lenses  and  the  reasoning  mind. 
The  mere  natural  man  is  no  better  than  a  cunningly 
devised  brass  tube,  with  Babbage's  calculating  ma- 
chine attached  to  it,  and  subservient  to  its  machiner}^ 
The  mere  natural  man,  rejecting  the  spiritual,  puts 
himself  out  of  coui't,  disqualifies  himself  as  a  witness. 
He  cannot  even  make  a  single  spiritual  experiment, 
any  more  than  a  man  despising  and  rejecting  the 
telescope  could  see  the  star  Sirius  at  noonday  with 
a  piece  of  smoked  glass. 

God's  covenant  and  method  in  and  with  the  tele- 
scope of  His  Word  is  of  personal  prayer;  and  without 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       8i 

faith,  exercised  in  prayer,  it  is  impossible  to  please 
Him;  for  he  that  cometh  to  God  must  believe  that  He 
is,  and  is  a  rewarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  Him. 

We  must  all  conduct  our  own  experiments,  depend- 
ing both  for  our  facts  and  our  methods,  upon  God. 
If  v/e  intend  to  acknowledge  and  believe  only  by  ex- 
periments with  acids  and  sub-acids,  retorts  and  cruci- 
bles, accompanied  with  the  lectures  of  scientific  chem- 
ists, we  can  see  nothing.  "We  are  shut  up  to  personal 
prayer,  at  the  same  time  comparing  spiritual  things 
with  spiritual.  That  is  science  in  theology,  true 
science  everywhere;  and  science  without  that  is 
science  falsely  so  called,  intruding  into  that  which 
.it  hath  not  seen,  and  vainly  joufifed  uj)  by  a  fleshly 
mind,  whose  dogmas  are  more  dogmatic  and  unrea- 
sonable than  any  theologian's. 

The  Word  of  God  is  put  into  our  hands  as  a  note 
of  promise,  on  the  back  of  which  we  are  to  put  our 
own  name,  and  carry  it  to  the  bank,  that  we  may  re- 
ceive the  money.  The  only  absolute  certainty  to  us, 
the  complete  evidence  that  the  note  is  genuine,  is  our 
own  presenting  it.  It  is  drawn  for  us  by  the  Lord  Je- 
sus Christ,  the  Word  Incarnate,  and  it  runs,  "  Whatso- 
ever ye  shall  ask  the  Father  in  My  name."  If  we 
carry  it  to  God,  this  is  the  process  of  faith,  and  the 
condition  of  salvation.  We  must  ourselves  present 
this  draft  in  prayer. 


82       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

Now  then,  if  we  refuse  to  believe  beforehand  in 
the  genuineness  of  such  a  draft,  if  we  deny  that  it 
is  from  God,  and  so  refuse  to  present  it,  we  can 
neither  receive  its  benefit,  nor  have  any  j^ersonal  evi- 
dence or  belief  in  regard  to  it.  If  we  deny  the  possi- 
bility of  such  a  note,  and  the  existence  of  such  a  bank, 
and  if  we  can  make  believe  ourselves,  or  make  others 
believe,  that  the  whole  thing  is  an  imj^osition,  and  the 
note  of  hand  of  no  more  value  than  any  other  piece  of 
paper,  we  cut  off  all  that  we  thus  persuade,  from  the 
possibility  of  ever  receiving  the  boon.  If  we  succeed 
in  making  men  believe  that  this  is  not  the  Word  of 
God,  and  that  this  merciful  Being,  who  offers  to 
us  eternal  Hfe  in  and  by  that  Word  is  not  a  Di- 
vine Saviour,  we  thus  exclude  the  whole  race,  so 
far  as  this  unbelief  extends,  from  the  possibility  of 
salvation. 

But  we  have  not  done  with  this  protested  draft, 
when  we  thus  dismiss  it  as  worthless  with  our  own 
warning  against  it.  The  most  profovmd  and  careful 
scientific  tests  and  experiments  will  avail  us  nothing, 
by  which  we  have  attempted  to  justify  our  unbelief, 
and  on  which  we  have  thrown  ourselves  for  defence  in 
our  rejection  of  Judification  by  Faith,  des23ising  as  unrea- 
sonable and  unscientific  that  cardinal  revealed  rule  and 
method  of  the  soul's  business  with  God  for  eternity. 
See  the  extraordinary  LUustrations  of  such  scorn  in  the 


God's  Timepiece foT"  Mans  Eternity.       8j 

volume  of  Prof.  Huxley's  "  Lay  Sermons."  *  But  he  that 
rejects  and  jDrotests  this  Word,  as  not  a  Divine  Author- 
ity, will  have  to  encounter  that  protest  itself  again,  as 
certainly  as  Christ  Himself  is  Divine.  God's  note  of 
hand,  with  Christ's  name  at  the  bottom  of  it,  but 
the  name  of  the  unbeliever  across  it,  protesting  it 
as  a  falsehood,  is  to  be  examined  in  the  final  set- 
tlement of  the  soul's  account  with  God.  Every  man 
will  be  judged  by  that  "Word  and  its  accej)tance,  or 
that  Word  and  its  rejection.  The  dishonored  draft  of 
God  will  be  all  that  is  needed  to  convict  the  criminal. 
*'  He  that  rejecteth  me,  and  receiveth  not  my  words, 
hath  one  that  judge th  him.     The  word  that  I  have 

SPOKEN,    THE    SAME    SHAXL    JUDGE    HIM    IN    THE    LAST    DAY." 

*  Example,  page  18 :  "  The  man  of  Science  has  learned  to  be- 
lieve in  justification,  not  by  faith,  but  by  verification,"  etc.  But 
how  shall  the  hundreds  of  millions,  not  of  science,  but  oi  ignorance, 
believe?  Whose  experiments  shall  they  accept  as  authority? 
Or  whose  asserted  verifications  can  they  trust,  to  guide  them  safely 
into  Eternity,  concerning  which,  no  scientist  has  ever  yet  made 
an  experiment  ? 


8^       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 


XI. 


THOUGHTS  OF  NAPOLEON  CONCERNING  CHRIST— THE 
SOUL  AND  ETERNITY,  CHRIST'S  OWN  KINGDOM- 
TIME  DISREGARDED,  ETERNITY  GOVERNING  ALL- 
FORGIVENESS  AND  THE  POWER  OF  MIRACLES  IN 
CHRIST  THE  DEMONSTRATION  OF  A  GOD. 

One  of  the  most  remartable  judgments  of  tlie 
human  mind  anywhere  recorded  in  history  is  that' 
of  the  Emperor  Napoleon  concerning  the  character 
and  kingdom  of  Christ,  as  God  manifest  in  the  flesh. 
It  seems  to  have  been  the  result,  at  St.  Helena,  of  a 
profound  discernment  and  conviction  of  the  sj)iritual- 
ity  of  that  kingdom,  and  of  the  work  of  Christ  its  Lord, 
in  man's  immortality  and  redemption;  the  eternity  of 
man  dwarfing  every  other  consideration  into  noth- 
ingness. Thence  arose,  in  conversation  with  General 
Bertrand,  a  demonstration  of  the  Word  of  God  and  of 
the  Deity  of  Christ,  rarely  if  ever  expressed  in  more 
imperative  form,  even  by  Christian  theologians.* 

*  Compare  the  celebrated  paragraphs  of  Eousseau  concerning 
the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  and  of  Socrates.  Both  these  in- 
stances, of  Napoleon  and  the  French  philosopher,  show  most  im- 
pressively how  near  the  human  mind  can  come  to  a  full  percep- 
tion and  acknowledgment  of  divine  truths,  in  regard  to  which 
there  is  no  evidence  that  the  beholder  of  them  ever  received  and 
used  them  as  the  means  of  a  personal  possession  of  Eternal  Life. 


GocCs  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       8 ^ 

"  Truth,"  said  Napoleon,  "  should  embrace  the  uni- 
verse. Such  is  Christianity,  the  onlij  religion  which  is 
purely  spiritual.  I  know  men,  and  I  tell  you  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  not  a  man.  Christ  proved  that  He  was  the 
Son  of  the  Eternal,  by  His  disregard  of  Time.  All 
His  doctrines  signify  one  and  the  same  thing,  Eternity. 
He  had  but  one  single  end,  the  holiness  of  the  soul. 
He  came  to  reveal  the  mysteries  of  heaven,  and  the 
LAWS  OF  THE  Spirit.  He  comviaticls  that  we  believe  them, 
giving  no  other  reason  than  the  declaration,  I  am  God  ! 
There  is  between  Christianity  and  all  other  religions 
whatsoever,  the  distance  of  infinity.  What  an  abyss 
between  my  deep  misery,  and  the  Eternal  reign  of 
Christ,  which  is  proclaimed,  loved,  adored !  " 

"  For  the  things  seen  are  temporal,  the  things  unseen 
are  eternal."  This  axiom  accounts  for  all.  The  mind 
of  Napoleon,  the  disciiDline  of  whose  life  was  battles, 
and  his  habit  the  concentration  of  energy,  foresight, 
means  and  opportunities,  for  mere  transitory  earthly 
empires,  was  arrested  by  this  divine  Nihihsm  of  the 
temporal,  and  Omnij)resence  of  the  Eternal,  as  an 
overwhelming  demonstration  of  God  manifest  in  Christ, 
the  God  of  the  Scriptures,  the  Redeemer  of  the  soul, 
the  Lord  of  the  kingdom  of  Eternal  Love. 

The  Son  of  the  Eternal,  and  the  new  Creator  in 
His  own  image,  of  immortal  beings,  fallen,  ever  fall- 
ing, and  needing  forgiveness  and  eternal  life;  a  for- 


86   '    God's  Timepiece foT"  Mans  Eternity. 

giveness  made  possible  only  through  His  sufferings 
and  death;  Time  disregarded,  Eternity  governing 
all;  therefore,  Christ,  Divine  and  Human,  the  Way, 
the  Truth,  the  Life,  the  Author  and  Finisher  of 
Faith. 

For,  indeed,  the  whole  intent,  interest,  and  use  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testament, — the  purpose  and  work 
of  God  in  the  Covenant  of  mercy  with  man  just  fallen, 
and  of  "  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,"  fulfilling  that  cove- 
nant, depend  on  the  revealed  immortahty  of  man. 
God's  oath  by  Himself  in  the  Old  Testament,  "  I  live 
forever,  and  change  not," — and  Christ's  in  the  New, 
"  Because.  I  live,  ye  shaU  live  also,"  hold  by  this  co- 
eternal  duration  of  man  with  God.  And  the  disclos- 
ure of  it  in  the  grand  Messianic  Psalms,  "  In  the  vol- 
ume of  the  Book  written  of  Me,"  apj)hed  with  such 
fulness  and  glory  of  consolation  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  constitutes  an  illuminating  demonstration 
of  infinite  power.  "  Thy  years  are  throughout  aU 
generations.  The  earth  and  the  heavens  are  the 
work  of  Thy  hands.  They  shall  perish,  but  Thou 
remainest.  As  a  garment  they  shall  wax  old  and 
be  changed;  but  Thou  art  the  same,  and  Thy  years 
shall  not  fail.     And    the    childben   oe   Thy   sekvants 

SHALL     CONTINUE,    AND    THEIK    SEED    SHALL    BE    ESTABLISHED 

before  Thee.  Thy  remembrance  is  to  all  generations. 
And  therefore,  this  shall  be  written  for  the  generafions 


God's  Ti7nepiece  for  Man's  Eternity.       8j 

to  come,  and  the  people  which  shall  be  created  shall 
praise  the  Lord." 

Therefore,  these  three  things,  (1)  life  eternal;  (2) 
the  object,  the  work,  and  the  worth  of  life,  to  glorify 
God,  and  enjoy  Him  forever;  and  (3)  the  means  j)ro- 
vided  for  accomplishing  this,  viz.,  the  jDromises  of  God 
in  Christ,  the  inspii'ed  Scriptures  for  all  generations; 
these  three  things  are  paramount  and  manifest  every- 
where; and  the  providential  government  of  God  is 
demonstrated  through  the  whole  history,  carrying  out 
these  objects.  So  that  the  whole  book  of  which  these 
things  constitute  the  staple  is  as  manifestly  the  work 
of  God  as  the  heavens  that  declare  His  glory.  It 
could  no  more  have  been  inspired  or  created  by  man, 
than  the  solar  system,  or  the  starry  universe. 

It  would  have  been  equally  impossible  for  the 
human  mind  to  invent  the  predictions  of  such  a 
Being,  as  the  Christ  of  the  Old  Testament,  or  the 
manner  of  His  incarnation,  or  the  quahties  by  which 
He  could  be  demonstrated  as  the  Saviour  of  mankind 
from  their  sins.  A  hyena  among  animals  might  more 
easily  invent  the  bass  or  treble  to  accompany  the  tenor 
of  one  of  Handel's  Melodies.  Or,  given  the  predic- 
tions of  the  existence  of  a  new  planet,  to  create  it  in 
the  required  form,  and  set  it  in  the  required  sphere, 
without  interference  with  any  other  orb  in  the  uni- 
verse. 


88       God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity. 

The  solution  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  was 
whoUij  in  Christ's  divine  and  human  nature.  BotJi 
were  foretold  in  the  Old  Testament,  both  are  dem- 
onstrated in  the  New.  At  the  same  time  that  na- 
ture was  such,  that  none  but  the  most  divinely  dis- 
interested souls  on  earth,  by  the  Spii'it  of  God,  at 
the  coming  of  Christ,  could  discern  it,  and  none  but 
such  would  desire  it.  It  would  at  once  destroy  the 
Jewish  imagination  of  a  kingdom  of  this  world,  and 
the  Gentile  imagination  of  any  possible  salvation 
through  the  pretended  revelations  of  the  heathen 
mythology.  The  impossible  beginning  of  such  im- 
posture, in  j^^'ojyhecies  of  the  coming  of  such  a  Sa- 
viour, and  much  more  in  their  realizaiion,  is  manifest. 
The  moral  qualities  requisite  are  imj)ossible,  co-exist- 
ing with  the  duj)licity  of  such  a  cheat.  It  would 
require  a  height  of  sj)irituality,  and  a  anarvellous  dis- 
cernment of  the  human  heart,  and  of  true  piety,  and 
a  jealousy  for  the  divine  glory,  impossible  to  be 
counterfeited  for  a  good  purpose,  impossible  for  a 
bad.  There  was  no  motive,  nothing  to  be  gained, 
by  the  invention  of  the  idea,  or  construction  of  the 
reahty;  no  such  perceistion  of  the  universal  corrup- 
tion of  doctrine  and  morals,  as  would  endure  such 
effort  against  that  corruption;  no  such  sad,  indig- 
nant sorrow  or  despair  for  the  departure  of  the  heart 
from  God;  no  such  severity  of  hatred  against  po^Dular 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Etciniity.       8g 

and  prevailing  sins,  no  such  imagination  of  a  heaven 
whose  blessedness  demanded  and  consisted  in  the  ut- 
most purity  of  the  soul,  excluding  forever  from  God's 
jjresence  the  sensual  and  proud,  the  ambitious  and 
warlike,  the  worshippers  of  idols  or  of  saints. 


XII. 

POWER  OF  MIRACLES  AND  FORGIVENESS  THE  UN- 
ANSWERABLE ARGUMENT  OF  A  SUPREME  DEITY- 
GOD  THE  ONLY  SAVIOUR— THE  DEMONSTRATION 
OF  CHRIST  PROGRESSIVE,  IN  THE  MYSTERY  OF 
HUMAN  AND  DIVINE. 

The  argument  resulting  from  the  prerogatives  of 
forgiveness  and  miraculous  power  united  in  Christ  is 
incontrovertible.  It  is  the  combination  of  attributes 
and  names  applied  to  Christ  and  claimed  by  Him,  both 
in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  belonging  only  to 
Jehovah,  and  that  cannot  be  assumed  or  received  by 
any  man  without  blasphemy.  Yet  so  absolutely  are 
they  ascribed  to  Jesus  the  Saviour,  that  the  whole 
plan  and  reahty  of  salvation  are  necessarily  and  in- 
extricably interwoven  iviih  them  in  Him;  and  indeed 
are  wrought  out  from  them,  and  fulfilled  by  them, 
only  in  Him.  "My  Father  worketh  hitherto  and  I 
work"  (John  v.  17),  the  indwelling  and  outworking 


go       God  s  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

of  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily;  so  that  the 
whole  Bible  is  simply  the  prediction  and  fulfillment 
of  God  manifest  nsr  the  elesh;  a  demonstration  of 
Christ's  Deity  and  Humanity  that  can  neither  be 
evaded  nor  denied. 

The  very  Being  oe  God  is  attested  and  sealed  to 
men  by  such  a  Saviour  as  the  Son  of  God,  one  with 
God  and  addressed  and  worshipped  as  God,  forever 
and  ever;  so  that,  if  He  be  not  God  our  Saviour,  there 
is  no  God.  This  is  that  profound  all-comprehensive 
declaration  in  Hosea  xiii.  4,  "Thou  shalt  know  no 
God  but  Me,  for  there  is  no  Saviour  beside  Me," 
compared  with  the  exact  correspondences  in  Isaiah, 
chai^ters  foi'ty-two  to  fifty-five.  "No  God  else  beside 
Me,  a  just  God  and  a  Saviour,  none  beside  Me.  This 
is  My  name;  and  My  glory  I  will  not  give  to  another. 
Look  unto  Me  and  be  ye  saved,  all  the  ends  of  the 
earth;  for  I  am  God,  and  there  is  none  else." 

What  can  be  more  positive,  more  intense,  comj)re- 
hensive  and  undeniable,  than  this  demonstration  of 
the  Godhead? 

The  creations,  revelations,  statements,  predictions, 
results,  are  a  battery  of  divine  reasoning  and  omnip- 
otence; and  the  very  focus  of  the  power,  and  the 
manifestation  of  it  to  the  whole  universe,  are  solely 
in  the  personal  oneness  and  sameness  of  God  in 
Christ,  bearing  our  sins,  forgiving  our  iniquities;  for- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       gi 

giveness  being  impossible  but  from  God,  and  the 
pretence  of  its  prerogative  a  blasphemy  in  any  crea- 
ture, and  salvation  of  the  soul  impossible  without 
it.  But  this  very  Christ  is  Himself  the  hearer  and 
answerer  of  prayer  unto  salvation;  the  same  Lord 
over  aU,  and  rich  unto  all  that  call  upon  Him;  for 
whosoever  shall  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord 
shall  be  saved;  the  only  name  under  heaven  given 
among  men  whereby  we  can  be  saved.  "Ye  shall 
call  His  name  Jesus,  for  He  shall  save  His  j^eople 
from  their  sins : "  and  the  calling  uj)on  Him  and 
His  name  for  that  salvation  is  the  highest  act  of 
faith  and  worship,  and  the  acknowledgment  of  su- 
preme divinity  and  j)ower. 

But  aU  these  mysteries  were  shadowed  forth  gradu- 
ally Hke  God's  gradual  processes  of  illumination  and 
growth  in  the  natural  world  from  the  beginning. 
All  in  God's  progressive  light  out  of  darkness,  in  the 
whole  revelation  of  Deity  and  Humanity,  shining  into 
the  heart,  "  to  give  the  Light  of  the  Knowledge  of  the 
glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ."  "Prepare 
ye  the  way  of  the  Lord,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
shall  be  revealed,  and  aU  flesh  shall  see  it  together. 
And  the  eyes  of  the  blind  shall  see  out  of  obscurity 
and  darkness,"  when  at  length  the  vast  majestic  sieijpes 
shall  have  been  successively  travelled  to  the  comple- 
tion; the  Son  of  Man,  the  Son  of  God;  God  over  aU, 


g2       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

"blessed  forever;  the  liuman  first,  a  cliild  is  born;  then 
the  divine,  the  Lord  our  righteousness;  seen  and 
adored  of  men  and  angels;  crucified,  buried,  ascended 
at  the  right  hand  of  the  Majesty  on  high;  the  Lamb 
of  God  upon  the  throne  of  God,  adored  forever  as 
Qod  the  Redeemer. 

The  disciples  themselves  were  taught  as  little  chil- 
dren, first  in  the  standing  school  of  Christ's  humanity, 
playmates  as  it  were  with  the  young  Nazarene;  then 
gradual  gleams  of  His  divinity;  then  the  Autocrat  of 
nature,  walking  on  the  sea;  then  the  healer  of  lepers; 
then  Lord  of  the  Sabbath;  then  raising  the  dead,  and 
exercising  the  most  exalted  divine  attribute  of  the  for- 
giveness of  all  guilt;  an  attribute  never  imparted  to 
man,  and  never  possessed  by  any  pretended  "Vicar 
of  God  "  on  earth. 

The  human  and  divine  are  in  one ;  either  without  the 
other,  a  falsehood;  if  one  accepted,  but  the  other  re- 
jected, a  rejection  and  invalidation  of  both.  Take  the 
great  promise  in  which  the  two  are  first  united  in 
Isaiah  ix.  6,  7.  "  For  unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us 
a  Son  is  given,  and  the  government  shall  be  upon  His 
shoulders:  and  His  name  shall  be  called  Wonderful, 
Counsellor,  The  Mighty  God,  The  Everlasting  Father, 
The  Prince  of  Peace.  Of  the  increase  of  His  govern- 
ment and  peace  there  shall  be  no  end  upon  the  throne 
of  David  and  upon  his  kingdom,  to  order  it  and  to  es- 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mail  s  Eternity.       gj 

tablish  it  with  judgment  and  with  justice  from  hence- 
forth even  forever.  The  zeal  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts 
will  perform  this." 

Now  turn  this  infinite  divine  medal,  and  we  have, 
on  the  other  side  in  the  whole  53d  chapter  of  the  same 
prophet,  a  solid  mass  of  prediction,  history,  reality,  the 
extreme  realism  of  humanity,  humiliation  and  suffer- 
ing, in  this  same  Wonderful  Everlasting  Being;  the  ut- 
termost sorrow  and  disgrace,  suffering  and  death  for 
others,  for  the  guilty,  the  poverty-stricken  and  lost  in 
sin,  and  despairing  of  mercy;  as  the  very  means  of 
fuliiUiug  in  Himself  the  triumph  of  forgiveness  and 
eternal  glory;  and  in  them,  the  blessedness  and  peace 
on  earth,  and  good- will  to  men,  conferred  by  the  Su- 
preme Lord  of  the  throne  and  kingdom  of  David. 

We  have  what  seems  to  a  proud  and  patriotic  race, 
descended  fi-om  Abraham  by  God's  own  covenant, 
and  to  aspiring  minds  and  hearts,  such  as  John's, 
Paul's,  and  Peter's  in  their  own  blindness,  an  infinite 
contradiction  and  denial,  to  be  repudiated  with  scorn 
and  hatred  as  an  impossibility.  And  yet  it  must  be 
true  and  fulfilled  to  the  extreme,  in  the  letter  and  in 
the  spirit,  or  the  divinity  and  the  glory  and  the  sal- 
vation can  never  be  verified. 

In  order  to  be  a  Saviour  for  sinners,  who  are  im- 
mortal in  sin  and  misery  without  Him,  this  Being 
must  be  able  to  say,  I  and  my  Father  are  One,  in  the 


g^       God's  Timepiece f 01"  Mans  Eternity. 

same  self-existence  through  eternity.  He  must  be  a 
High  Priest  forever  after  the  j^ower  of  an  endless  life, 
not  the  mere  laio  of  a  carnal  commandment,  but  the 
right  and  power  of  bestowing  on  us  a  Ufe  in  His  own 
life,  His  own  indwelling  in  us,  by  which  we  are  made 
partakers  of  the  Divine  Nature,  and  forever  draw 
nigh  unto  God.  He  must  be  able  to  save  for  ever- 
more all  that  come  unto  God  by  Him,  because  He  is 
consecrated  for  evermore,  made  higher  than  the  heavens, 
and  ever  livetli  to  make  intercession,  which  itself  is  the 
peculiar  attribute  and  prerogative  of  His  own  human 
and  divine  majesty,  in  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead 
bodily. 

This  is  the  compound  circuit  of  the  magnetic  trains 
of  divine  and  human  attributes  and  realities  meeting 
on  earth  and  in  heaven,  for  the  destruction  of  sin  and 
death  through  the  sufferings  and  sacrifice,  the  death 
and  resurrection  of  the  Son  and  Lord  of  David,  when 
the  Lord  should  have  laid  on  him  the  iniquities  of  us 
all.  The  circuit  could  not  be  sundered,  nor  its  terms 
altered,  and  anything  of  truth  remain.  For  a  Saviour 
is  predicted,  who  is  to  be  Jehovah  our  Righteous- 
ness, God  with  us,  both  in  name  and  nature,  infi- 
nitely holy,  all-powerfiJ,  all-wise,  a  self-existing  Being 
from  eternity;  but  at  the  same  time  human,  of  the 
seed  of  David,  in  the  form  of  man,  so  assuredly,  and 
for  such   a  purpose  of  human   salvation,  in  such  a 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       g^ 

way  of  expiation  for  sin,  by  sucli  a  sin-offering  in 
Himself,  fulfilling  all  the  types  and  promises  of  the 
diAine  law,  that  the  very  divinity  of  His  nature  could 
be  certified  only  through  His  joerfect  and  infinitely 
holy  humanity,  as  the  Holy  One  of  God.  These  in- 
finite truths  and  phenomena  of  the  divine  existence 
are  impossibilities  to  mere  human  reason  without 
faith;  yet  they  are  as  clearly  foretold  in  the  Old 
Testament,  and  demonstrated  in  the  New,  as  the 
eternal  power  and  Godhead  of  the  invisible  Creator 
are  declared  and  understood  by  the  things  that  are 
made. 

Jehovah,  our  righteousness,  the  Messiah  of  God, 
was  to  transact  all  these  mysteries,  and  put  all 
these  apparent  impossibihties  and  incomprehensi- 
ble contradictions  into  actual  demonstrations,  known 
reahties,  the  practical  working  of  which  should  be 
visible  to  the  whole  universe;  and  they  were  to  be 
powers  experienced  and  lived  out  in  daily  life  and 
obedience.  They  were  to  be  the  things,  "  which 
we  have  heard,  which  we  have  seen  with  our  eyes, 
which  we  have  looked  upon,  and  our  hands  have 
handled,  of  the  Word  of  life." 

The  laws  of  the  Decalogue,  as  contained  in  that 
Word,  Christ  took  into  His  own  human  and  divine 
life  and  interpreted  them  by  obeying  them,  by  ful- 
filling them  in  love.     The  institutions,  as  the  Passover, 


g6       God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

and  the  Sabbatli,  and  the  Mercy  Seat,  and  Prayer,  and 
the  blood  of  Atonement,  were  His  alone,  to  make  them 
in  Himself  a  perj^etual  power  of  life,  in  love  and  duty, 
in  holiness,  in  gratitude  and  joy,  by  His  own  author- 
ity and  inspiration,  as  Head  over  all  things  to  the 
Church.  Other  Head  and  Lord  there  never  should 
be,  never  could  be.  The  attempt  would  be  a  revela- 
tion of  "That  "Wicked,  6  avonoz,  the  Man  of  Sin,  the 
Son  of  Perdition,  whom  the  Lord  must  consume  with 
the  Spirit  of  His  mouth,  and  destroy  with  the  bright- 
ness of  His  coming."  * 

*  And  now  to  think  of  the  amazing  profanation,  denial,  sub- 
version of  these  things,  by  the  power  of  Satan  among  men, 
through  the  same  blind,  self-worshipping  despotism,  under 
which  he  had  vainly  endeavored  to  subdue  even  the  Saviour ! 
To  think  of  a  system  of  this  world's  power  and  glory  being  es- 
tablished among  men,  and  accepted  as  the  Church  of  Christ; 
which  takes  the  forgiveness  of  sin  out  of  Christ's  hands,  and 
puts  it  at  the  disposal  of  a  priestly  hierarchy  for  money;  and 
takes  the  infallibility  of  God,  and  puts  that  also  in  the  power 
of  a  man,  as  God,  sitting  in  God's  temple;  which  steals  from 
Christ  the  keys  of  hell  and  flings  them  at  the  head  of  every 
believer  in  Jesus,  who  denies  the  authority  and  power  of  a 
priestly  absolution;  which  takes  the  very  doctrines  of  the 
gospel  by  name,  and  makes  out  of  them  by  cruelty  a  torture 
of  the  Inquisition;  and  teaches  in  all  things  the  worship  of 
God,  not  by  the  Word  of  God,  but  the  commandments  oi 
men.  And  at  the  instigation  of  such  a  Church,  this  Book 
of  God    given    to   be    the   guide    of  our   souls   from   infancy 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.       gy 

On  this  assurance  of  tlie  authority  and  work  of 
forgiveness  residing  only  in  Christ,  and  untransfer- 
able to  any  living  creature,  or  agent,  vicegerent  or 
corporation  of  church  or  state,  hangs  all  our  security 
of  pardon  and  eternal  life,  against  human  impos- 
tures and  despotisms,  against  false  rehgions,  arroga- 
ting God's  j)owei'. 


XIII. 

CHRIST  OUR  LAWGIVER  AND  KING,  CREATOR,  JUDGE, 
ADVOCATE,  AND  FORGIVING  SAVIOUR;  IN  HIMSELF 
OUR  ETERNAL  LIFE— THE  SUCCESSIVE  TERRACES  OF 
THESE  GLORIES  IN  THE  PROPHECIES  OF  ISAIAH. 

"For  the  Lord  is  out'  Judge,  the  Lord  is  our 
Lawgiver,  the  Lord  is  our  King;  He  will  save  us. 
And  the  inhabitants  shall  no  more  say,  I  am  sick; 
the  people  that  dwell  therein  shall  be  forgiven  their 
iniquity."  This  passage  in  Isaiah  xxxiii.  22,  24,  is 
a  profoundly  interesting  and  most  suggestive  example 

through  life  and  into  eternity,  is  to  be  expelled  fi-om  our  com- 
mon schools,  from  the  education  of  our  children,  from  its  su- 
premacy over  the  family,  and  the  state,  and  the  woi-ld !  And 
this  tremendous  apostacy  we  are  requked  to  receive  as  the 
Church  of  Christ,  because  its  priests  baptize  in  the  name  of 
the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost ! 


g8       GocCs  Timepiece  for  Alan's  Ete7'nity. 

of  tlie  manner  in  which  the  Scriptures  are  constructed 
as  an  Observatory  winding  upwards,  carrying  the  ob- 
server and  behever,  the  Pilgrim  to  Eternity,  con- 
stantly nearer  to  God :  constructed  with  landing- 
places  and  revolving  windows  where  the  soul  may 
rest  and  gaze  forth  ilhmitably.  It  is  a  Jacob's  ladder 
up  and  down  which  God's  angels  are  ascending  and 
descending,  even  as  they  are  beheld  doing  by  steps, 
life-lines,  and  holdings  on  the  Son  of  Man,  whose 
Incarnate  Majesty  and  self  -  existent  glory  are  the 
medium  of  communication  between  the  creature  man 
and  the  Infinite  Creator ;  who  is  before  all  things, 
and  by  whom  all  things  consist,  and  by  whom  in 
His  humanity  bearing  our  sins,  and  so  becoming  the 
way,  the  truth,  the  life,  we  sinners,  the  guilty  and 
the  lost,  come  to  God;  and  by  the  love  of  Christ 
dwelling  in  our  hearts  by  faith,  are  filled  with  all 
the  fulness  of  God,  receiving  the  end  of  our  faith, 
even  the  salvation  of  the  soul.  For  as  that  is  the 
end  and  object  of  faith,  so  the  manifestation  of  that 
and  the  training  of  mankind  for  it,  are  the  object  and 
work  of  the  whole  divine  revelation. 

The  culmination  of  all  blessings,  and  the  worth 
and  security  of  all,  were  in  this  one  thing,  the  for- 
giveness of  sins.  Without  that,  good  were  it  for 
every  man  if  he  had  never  been  born.  And  it  is 
■wonderful  to  see  how  this  efreat  truth  is  found  in- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity.      gg 

cessantly  lifting  itself  up  in  i^ower  and  glory,  with 
warning  mountain  beacons,  all  through  the  Old 
Testament,  but  especially  the  Psalms  and  the  Pro- 
phetic portions,  coming  after  the  arrangements  and 
figuratiye  provisions  of  the  law,  and  in  a  primal 
sense  fulfilling  them,  even  before  the  coming  of 
the  Saviour.  The  whole  benefit  and  blessedness 
of  the  law,  its  object  and  instrumentality,  as  ap- 
pointed of  God,  were  first  of  all,  the  impression 
upon  mankind  of  a  sense  of  their  guilt;  and  then 
the  education  and  training  of  the  wounded  con- 
science to  the  search  after  forgiveness;  that  is,  after 
the  appointed  Christ,  the  promised  Saviour,  to  the 
fountain  of  whose  blood  all  the  legal  provisions  for 
the  remission  of  sins  conducted  mankind.  That  was 
God's  method  of  teaching,  and  for  that  He  gave 
the  law  to  be  to  us  a  schooolmaster  to  bring  us 
to  Christ,  for  hohness,  forgiveness,  and  eternal  life. 
Ever  and  anon,  aU  along  the  stream  of  divine 
revelation  we  come  upon  such  a  table-land,  a  ter- 
race piled  for  the  advantage  of  such  a  command- 
ing view.  So  a  "Word  like  this  at  the  close  of  the 
thu-ty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah  is  like  an  open  door 
through  which,  at  the  end  of  a  dark  vista  or  tun- 
nel, our  sight  is  conducted  forth  and  opened  upon 
a  prospect  of  interminable  space,  and  indescriba- 
ble beauty  and  glory.     It  is  like  the  vast  range  of 


100     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

landscajDe  sometimes  suddenly  seen  tlirougli  the  side 
closings  and  infolding  slopes  of  the  Swiss  Moun- 
tains. The  glory  is  all  the  greater  for  the  jDains 
we  have  taken,  and  the  long  reaches  of  fatigue- 
ing  ascent  uj)  which  we  have  toiled,  to  gain  such 
a  commanding  point  of  vision. 

You  are  sometimes  amazed  at  the  genius  and 
skill  with  which  some  great  painter  has  been  en- 
abled, by  the  intermingling  and  crossing  of  light 
and  shade  in  great  masses  at  the  right  intervals, 
to  carry  forward  the  whole  attention  and  admira- 
tion, the  whole  power  and  enjoyment  of  the  mind, 
to  the  opening  at  the  end  of  this  perspective;  and 
the  splendor  of  the  distant  view,  which  you  know, 
if  you  could  see  far  enough,  would  be  revealed, 
is  half  made  up  by  the  training  and  excitement  of 
the  imagination  in  the  foreground  of  the  j)icture. 
Every  step  and  circumstance,  every  tree,  jDrecij^ice, 
and  rising  bank,  have  made  you  exjDect,  look  out 
for,  and  prophesy  some  great  development,  and 
have  prepared  you  to  meet  it  with  belief  and  ap- 
preciation. 

And  such  is  the  training  of  the  mind  of  a  believ- 
ing person,  travelhng  along  the  record  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. Sometimes  gloomy  dark  mountains  shut  you 
in,  entirely  locking  up  youi'  vision  and  sense  to  a 
present  desolation  and  terror.     But  you  come  to  an 


God's  Timepiece  for  Ma?is  Eter^nity.     loi 

openinsf;  there  is  always  an  exit  to  a  wider  world. 
Tlie  prophetic  intuition  with  which  you  began  is 
sustained  and  deepened,  as  a  mountain  brook  is  in- 
creased at  length  to  a  river  in  its  passage  to  the 
open  sea.  Sometimes  a  valley  is  traversed  and  wa- 
tered like  a  garden  of  Paradise,  as  if  that  partic- 
ular thing  were  the  final  cause  of  the  stream  that 
is  carrying  such  verdure  and  refreshing  beauty 
through  the  world.  But  always  there  is  the  warn- 
ing and  uphfting  sense  of  a  mighty  conclusion  to 
which  you  are  advancing.  "Arise  ye,  and  depart 
hence,  for  this  is  not  your  rest."  It  is  but  a  pil- 
grimage to  a  better  country,  even  a  heavenly,  up 
to  which  all  God's  discipline,  rightly  interpreted, 
conducts  the  soul.  Everi^^where,  as  in  some  magic 
land  of  dreams  and  portents,  the  awakened  spirit 
sees  or  feels  the  invisible  warnings. 

"I  see  a  hand  you  cannot  see, 
That  beckons  me  away; 
I  hear  a  voice  you  cannot  hear, 
Forbidding  me  to  stay." 

It  is  wonderfully  like  the  intimations  of  immortality 
from  the  recollections  of  childhood  as  traced  in  the 
Poet  Wordsworth's  celebrated  Ode;  only  in  this  case 
the  intimations  are  increasing  with  the  progress  of 
the    believing    Spirit,    and    instead    of    seeing    them 


102     God's  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity. 

mournfully  obliterated,  or  shaded  and  dying  away, 
till  at  length  they  fade  into  the  light  of  common 
day,  the  believing  soul  arrives  at  Christ  by  means 
of  them,  and  in  Him  knows,  even  by  the  ministra- 
tion of  His  Spirit,  vouchsafed  to  the  heart  that  is 
following  on  after  Him,  the  reality  of  this  predicted 
life,  and  something  of  its  glory  beforehand.  Such 
is  the  operation  of  the  successive  shafts  of  light  in 
the  Old  Testament  Revelation,  continually  broaden- 
ing and  deej)ening  in  unity  and  glory,  till  as  min- 
istering angels  they  bear  us  on  tlieii'  wings  into  the 
presence  of  the  Saviour,  where  Moses  and  Elias  re- 
tire, and  leave  the  soul  satisfied  in  Christ's  love, 
assured  of  His  likeness. 


XIV. 

THE  INTUITIONS  OF  THE  PEOPLE  AND  THE  TEACH- 
INGS OF  THE  LAW  COMBINING  WITH  THE  DIVINE 
LIGHT  OF  PROPHECY— DEATH  SWALLOWED  UP  IN 
VICTORY  BY  OUR  FORGIVING  LORD  AND  GOD— FOR- 
GIVENESS THE  GREATEST  PROOF  OF  DEITY  AND 
OBLIGATION  OF  GRATITUDE. 

Now  from  the  twenty-fourth  chaj^ter  of  Isaiah  to 
the  thu'ty-sixth  there  is  a  very  striking  example 
of  this  divine   light  of  projDhecy  combining  with   the 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mmis  Eternity.     loj 

experience  and  intuitions  of  the  people,  and  the 
teachings  of  the  divine  law,  and  leading  them  to 
God  as  then*  Great  Physician,  and  to  Heaven  in 
the  enjoyment  of  His  pi'esence  as  their  home.  It 
is  promised  that  God  "will  destroy  in  the  moun- 
tain of  the  Lord's  House  the  face  of  the  covering 
cast  over  all  people,  and  the  veil  that  is  spread 
over  all  nations,  and  will  swallow  up  death  in  vic- 
tory, and  will  wipe  away  tears  from  off  aU  faces. 
And  it  shall  be  said  in  that  day  Lo,  this  is  our 
God;  we  have  waited  for  Him,  and  He  wUl  save 
us;  this  is  the  Lord;  we  have  waited  for  Him;  we 
will  be  glad  and  rejoice  in  His  salvation.  And 
therefore  will  the  Lord  wait,  that  He  may  be  gra- 
cious unto  you,  and  therefore  will  He  be  exalted, 
that  He  may  have  mercy  upon  you;  for  the  Lord 
is  a  God  of  judgment;  blessed  are  all  they  that 
wait  for  Him."  "Moreover,  the  light  of  the  moon 
shall  be  as  the  Hght  of  the  sun,  and  the  light  of 
the  sun  shall  be  sevenfold  as  the  light  of  seven 
days,  in  the  day  that  the  Lord  bindeth  up  the 
breach  of  His  people,  and  healeth  the  stroke  of 
their  wound." 

"Thine  eyes  shall  see  the  King  in  His  beauty; 
thine  eyes  shall  see  Jerusalem  a  quiet  habitation. 
There  the  glorious  Lord  will  be  unto  us  a  place 
of  broad  rivers  and  streams.     The  Lord  is  our  King, 


10^     Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

He  will  save  us.     And  the  inhabitant  shall  not  say, 
I  am  sick;   the  people  that  dwell   therein   shall   be 

FORGn'EN    THEIR   INIQUITY."  * 

*  See  the  magnificent  description,  in  Wordsworth's  Poem  of 
the  "Excursion,"  Book  11.,  of  such  a  Mountain  Eevelation  from 
the  Eternal  God. 

"Through  the  dull  mist,  a  step, 
A  single  step,  that  freed  me  from  the  skirts 
Of  the  blind  vapor,  opened  to  my  view 
Glory  beyond  all  glory  ever  seen 
By  waking  sense,  or  by  the  dreaming  soul. 

The  appearance,  instantaneously  disclosed, 
Was  of  a  mighty  City,— boldly  say 
A  wilderness  of  building, — sinking  far 
And  self-withdrawn  into  a  wondrous  depth, 
Far  sinking  into  splendor  without  end! 

Fabric  it  seemed  of  diamond  and  of  gold. 
With  alabaster  domes  and  silver  spires 
And  blazing  terrace  upon  terrace,  high 
Uplifted;  here,  serene  pavilions  bright, 
In  avenues  disposed ;  there,  towers  begirt 
With  battlements  that  on  their  restless  fronts 
Bore  stars, — illumination  of  all  gems! 
By  earthly  nature  had  the  effect  been  wrought 
Upon  the  dark  materials  of  the  storm, 
Now  pacified;  on  them,  and  on  the  coves, 
And  mountain  steeps  and  summits,  whereunto 
The  vapors  had  receded,  taking  there 
Their  station  under  a  cerulean  sky. 

O,  'twas  an  unimaginable  sight! 
Clouds,  mists,  streams,  watery  rocks  and  emerald  turf, 
Clouds  of  all  tincture,  rocks  and  sapphire  sky, 
Confused,  commingled,  mutually  inflamed, 
Molten  together,  and  composing  thus. 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity.     lo^ 

Now  beyond  question  this  portion  of  the  prophecy 
of  Isaiah  is  an  example  of  God's  method  in  fore- 
telling, first  of  all,  the  coming  and  reign  of  the  Mes- 
siah upon  earth,  and  ultimately  the  glory  and  bless- 
edness  of  the   result  in   everlasting   heaven    of   the 

Each  lost  in  each,  that  marvellous  array 
Of  temple,  palace,  citadel,  and  huge 
Fantastic  form  of  structure  without  name. 
In  fleecy  folds  voluminous,  enwrapped. 

Right  in  the  midst,  where  interspace  appeared 
Of  open-coast,  an  object  like  a  Throne, 
Beneath  a  shining  canopy  of  State, 
Stood  fixed;  and  fixed  resemblances  were  seen, 
To  implements  of  ordinary  use. 
But  vast  in  size,  in  substance  glorified; 
Such  as  by  Hebrew  Prophets  were  beheld 
In  vision, — forms  uncouth  of  mightiest  power. 
For  admiration  and  mysterious  awe. 

Below  me  was  the  Earth;  this  little  vale, 
Lay  low  beneath  my  feet;  'twas  visible, — 
1  saw  not,  but  I  felt  that  it  was  there. 
That  which  I  saw  was  the  revealed  abode 
Of  Spirits  in  beatitude:  My  heart 
Swelled  in  my  breast, — I  have  been  dead,  I  cried, 
And  now  I  live  !  Oh !  wherefore  do  I  live  ? 
And  with  that  pang,  I  prayed  to  be  no  more ! 
The  apparition  faded  not  away. 
And  I  descended." — 

But  never  to  forget  this  vision,  having  been  caught  up  by  it 
to  the  third  heaven,  and  better  fitted  to  say,  "Now  I  know  in 
part,  but  then  shall  I  know,  even  as  I  am  known.  There  shall 
be  no  night  there,  for  the  Lord  God  giveth  them  light,  and  they 
shall  reign  forever  and  ever." 


io6     God's  Timepiece  for  Ma7is  Eternity. 

forgiveness  of  sin  from  God  through  Him.  The  for- 
giveness of  sin  is  the  one  blessing  on  which  the 
heart  of  man  is  taught  to  set  its  desii*e,  and  the 
importunity  and  urgency  of  its  seeking.  God's  course 
of  disciplinary  education  with  men  and  nations  is  or- 
dered with  reference  to  this  seeking;  even  as  it  is 
stated  in  Paul's  discourse  to  the  Athenians,  that 
God  hath  inade  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men 
for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  hath 
determined  the  times  before  appointed,  and  the 
bounds  of  their  habitation,  that  they  should  seek 
the  Lord,  if  haply  they  might  feel  after  Him,  and 
find  Him,  though  He  be  not  far  from  every  one 
of  us. 

They  that  seek  Him  shall  find  Him,  and  in  the 
forgiveness  of  sin  by  His  mercy  shall  find  and  shall 
receive  aU  things  thai  j)ertain  unto  life  and  godli- 
ness throiigh  the  knowledge  of  Him  that  hath  called 
ns  to  glory  and  virtue,  and  hath  given  us  those  ex- 
ceeding great  and  precious  promises,  by  which  we 
may  be  partakers  of  the  divine  nature.  And  this 
very  promise  in  Isaiah,  as  being  the  Sun  at  mid- 
noon  of  the  heavenly  revelations  from  God  in  the 
Old  Testament,  we  may  take;  and  as  a  naviga- 
tor at  sea,  in  taking  his  reckoning,  brings  the  sun 
down  with  his  quadrant  to  the  sensible  horizon, 
and   makes  his   calculations   and  determines  his  po- 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     loy 

sition,  even  so,  we  may  bring  this  central  light,  this 
concentration  of  all  light  from  heaven  concerning 
the  soul's  forgiveness  and  the  blessedness  resulting 
from  it,  down  to  the  appearance  of  our  Lord  on 
earth,  to  the  incarnation  of  Him  Who  went  about 
doing  good,  healing  our  sicknesses,  and  bearing 
our  infirmities,  and  forgiving  our  sins.  "We  may- 
bring  it  down  to  a  pai'ticular  point  in  the  hori- 
zon of  the  gospels,  where  our  blessed  Lord  appears 
as  the  healer  of  all  the  sicknesses  and  pains  both 
of  soul  and  body  of  our  ruined  race. 

Our  Lord's  manifestation  on  earth  with  this  claim 
for  this  purpose,  as  the  searcher  and  healer  of 
hearts,  proves  Him  divine,  and  is  a  seal  irresistible 
of  both  volumes  of  divine  revelation,  the  Old  and  the 
New,  the  Old  discovering  sin,  the  New,  redeeming 
from  it.  No  such  Being,  no  such  revealer  of  the 
innermost  nature  and  ruin  of  mankind,  no  such  pre- 
tended physician  had  ever  appeared  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world;  no  divine  messenger  had  ever 
opened  his  lips  with  that  claim  of  having  come  on 
such  a  mission.  No  one  had  ever  made  the  discovery 
of  men's  universal,  unexceptionable  need  of  such  a 
salvation. 

The  misery  of  man  had  been  known,  but  not  as 
sinful,  and  therefore  inherent,  inevitable;  not  the  ac- 
knowledgment made  of  the  state  of  man  as  in  him- 


io8     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

self  incurably  sinful  by  liis  own  wiU  and  fault,  and 
consequently,  if  immortal  in  sin  and  guilt,  forever  mis- 
erable. Yet  the  cure  of  human  wretchedness  had  been 
tried,  and  quacks  had  made  their  experiments  and 
played  their  tricks.  But  for  a  man  to  stand  up  before 
his  fellow-men,  and  offer,  as  the  only  hope  for  them, 
and  as  being  Himself  without  sin.  to  heal  their  souls, 
to  forgive  sin,  to  make  men  holy  and  thus  happy,  in 
and  with  God  as  their  Father  and  Friend  forever 
and  ever,  was  a  manifestation  never  known,  and 
would  have  been,  in  man,   a  superhuman  audacity. 

For  a  man  to  rest  his  whole  authority,  and  his  claim 
to  be  heard,  and  the  worth  of  his  teaching  on  that, 
on  the  right  to  say,  "  Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee,"  and 
to  venture  the  performance  of  a  miracle  to  test  tliai; — 
openly  caUing  God  to  witness  both  the  power  and 
right;  not  merely  as  Elijah  once  did,  proclaiming  that 
he  was  a  prophet  of  the  true  God,  a  messenger  com- 
missioned against  all  idolatry,  but  that  he  was  in- 
vested, by  God  Himself,  on  earth,  with  the  very  high- 
est prerogative  of  divine  sovereignty  in  heaven,  the 
power  and  right  to  forgive  sins;  this  was  either  God, 
or  blasj)hemy  against  God. 

And  here  the  intuition  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees 
was  perfect,  for  it  was  trained  by  divine  revelation 
itself,  and  in  accordance  with  it.  None  can  forgive 
sins  but  God   only.     Their   theology   on   this    point 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     log 

was  axiomatic,  incontestable,  unmistakable.  Expia- 
tions, priests,  altars,  sacrifices,  temples,  nothing  on 
earth,  nor  any  creature  of  the  race  of  man,  could 
forgive  sin,  but  God  only,  God,  against  whom  aU. 
have  sinned.  All  we  like  sheep  have  gone  astray; 
God  had  revealed  that,  and  man  could  so  discover 
it,  and  feel  it;  but  none  could  ever  by  any  means 
redeem  or  forgive  his  brother,  or  give  to  God  a 
ransom  for  him,  or  say  on  earth,  as  God,  I  forgive 
thee,  or,  "  Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee."  How  cotdd 
any  but  the  Omniscient  God  know  what  any  man's 
sins  were,  to  be  forgiven? 

And  this  it  was,  when  our  Lord  Jesus  stood  and 
said,  in  the  court  of  a  Jewish  house,  with  the  crowd 
gazing  on  the  man  sick  of  the  palsy,  let  down  into  the 
midst  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  and  the  Scribes  and  Phari- 
sees watching  eveiy  motion,  every  word,  "  Son,  be  of 
good  cheer !  Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee ! "  This  it  was 
that  arrested  the  thoughts  of  all,  and  carried  them 
up  to  God,  as  if  a  cataract  had  been  stopped  in  its 
fall,  and  flung  back  towards  heaven.  Not  an  indi- 
vidual expected  it,  and  all  but  the  sick  man  himself 
were  thunderstruck  by  it,  and  overwhehned  with  as- 
tonishment and  awe.  And  no  wonder  that  the  Scribes 
and  Pharisees,  with  all  their  prejudices  against  Christ, 
and  the  purely  spiritual  and  heart-searching  nature 
of  His  teachings,  and  aU  then-  jealousy  for  the  God 


J 10     Gods  Timepiece f 01^  Mans  Eternity. 

of  Moses  and  of  the  Jews,  and  all  their  knowledge  of 
what  blasjjhemy  in  a  mere  mortal  might  be,  accused 
our  Lord  of  blasi^hemy.  For  their  theology  was  just, 
was  indisputable,  and  the  conclusion  inevitable;  who 
can  forgive  sins  but  God  only  ?  And  what  else  is  this, 
but  the  claim  of  being  God  ?  And  this  Nazarene,  this 
carpenter,  makes  it! 

It  must  be  noted  and  remembered  all  along, 
that  this  claim  comes  in  at  the  very  beginning  of 
Christ's  ministry,  that  it  struck  the  key-note  of  aU 
His  teachings,  that  it  is  grounded  in  the  infinite  and 
eternal  value  of  the  soul,  that  it  implies  the  profound 
truth  of  all  the  sense  that  can  be  drawn  from  the 
warnings  of  God  in  both  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come,  and  to  secure  the  sal- 
vation of  the  soul;  its  redemption  from  the  death  of 
sin,  being  the  one  great  object  alone  worthy  the  effort 
of  an  immortal  being.  It  was  the  subject  of  Christ's 
first  sermon,  and  the  burden  of  His  last  prayer.  It 
was  the  reason  for  His  own  endurance  of  the  dread, 
intolerable  misery  of  being  forsaken  of  God,  and  the 
reason  why  He  would  not  pray,  amidst  the  trouble 
of  His  own  soul,  that  God  would  save  Him  from  that 
hour;  because  for  the  sake  of  that  very  suffering,  and 
the  glory  of  redemption  to  be  gained  by  it.  He  came 
into  the  world,  and  met  the  conflict  of  that  hour,  hav- 
ing become  voluntarily  partaker  of  our  flesh  and  blood, 


God's  Tii7tepiece for  Mans  Eternity,     iii 

that  through  death  He  might  destroy  him  that  had 
the  power  of  death,  that  is,  the  devil. 

Now  we  can  neither  understand  the  gospels  nor 
the  character  of  Chiist,  but  with  this  key  to  the 
study  of  them,  taken  fi-om  His  own  words,  and  from 
His  own  estimate  of  the  value  of  the  soul,  and  of  His 
own  work  in  coming  into  the  world  as  the  Physician 
of  the  soul.  Forgiveness  of  sin,  and  the  gift  of  the  Life 
Everlasting !  "I  am  come  that  they  might  have  life, 
and  have  it  more  abundantly.  I  am  the  Good  Shep- 
herd :  the  Good  Shepherd  giveth  His  life  for  the 
sheep." — John  x.  10,  11.  "For  the  Son  of  Man  is 
come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  ivas  lost." — Luke 
xix.  10,  and  Matt,  xviii.  11.*  In  infinite  mercy  ovir 
Blessed  Lord  has  caused  this  declaration  to  be  re- 
peated in  the  midst  of  an  ai'gument  of  compassionate 
warning  for  both  Jews  and  Gentiles,  and  for  aU  man- 

*  The  modern  revisers  of  our  English  translation  have  thought 
fit  to  strike  out  utterly  from  the  Gospel  of  Matthew  this  shining 
and  gracious  light;  thus  destroying  from  that  part  of  the  New 
Testament  one  of  the  brightest  evidences  of  Christianity,  and 
one  of  the  most  comforting  assurances  of  the  Holy  Spirit  against 
despair.  Let  the  reader  compare  the  passages  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament explanatory  of  this  word  Lost;  few,  but  comprehensive; 
absolute,  and  infinite  in  compassionate  warning.  Compare,  also, 
Acts  xiii.  46,  where  the  contradicting  and  blaspheming  Jews  are 
said  to  have  condemned  themselves  as  being  unworthy  of  Ever- 
lasting life. 


112     Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eteriiity. 

kind.  In  Matthew,  for  the  whole  world  of  sinners,  to 
warn  them  of  the  danger  by  sin  of  being  in  their 
temporal  and  eternal  guilt,  unrepented  of  and  unfor- 
given,  cast  into  everlasting  fire;  and  to  invite  and 
persuade  them  to  take  refuge  in  His  offered  forgiving 
grace,  that  they  might  never  find  themselves  among 
the  sovds  thus  lost. 

If  not  thus  lost,  then  no  need  of  ever  being  found; 
if  not  thus  lost,  not  lost  at  all,  so  that  the  very  word 
before  God  would  be  a  falsehood.  And  again,  as  the 
Sadducees  and  materialists  argued,  if  not  immortal, 
then  nothing  forfeited;  if  a  mere  material  physical 
organization  for  this  world  only,  but  neither  spirit  nor 
a  future  life,  then  no  more  sin  than  a  machine,  nor  any 
need  of  pardon,  nor  an;)i:hing  to  fear,  nor  need  of  any 
Saviour,  nor  any  other  blessedness  or  glory  but  to  eat 
and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die.  Nothing,  either  of 
quality  or  circumstance,  could  have  any  reality  or 
power  beyond  the  grave,  for  creatures  not  immortal; 
nor  could  anything  be  made  to  appear  of  any  imj)or- 
tance,  except  only  in  this  transitory  life. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,     iij 


XV. 


HOW  THE  APPEARANCE  OF  CHRIST  IN  THE  WORLD 
WAS  ACCORDINGLY  FORESHADOWED  — ON  WHAT 
HIS  APPEAL  TO  MANKIND  WAS  GROUNDED— THREE 
REALITIES  OF  EXPERIENCE  AND  FOREWARNING 
—KNOWLEDGE  OF  EXISTENCE  AND  RESPONSIBIL- 
ITY BEYOND  THE  GRAVE  THE  GREAT  DISCIPLIN- 
ARY, INSTRUCTION  AND  EXPERIENCE  OF  MANKIND, 
—TWO  EXTREMES  OF  TEMPTATION  AND  GUILT  COR- 
RESPONDING, AND  TO  BE  PROVIDED  AGAINST  BY 
CHRIST— WHO  SHALL  LEAD  HIS  ARMY  OF  WIT- 
NESSES  ? 

Now  then,  with  the  slightest  adequate  sense  of 
man's  sinfulness  and  darkness,  with  the  least  ob- 
tained result  of  wisdom  from  all  preceding  light, 
and  from  the  whole  course  of  God's  discipline  with 
mankind,  a  reasonable  man  would  feel  and  say  that 
the  appearance  of  such  a  being  as  Christ  on  earth 
with  such  claims  and  such  demonstrated  power  sup- 
porting them,  must  be  the  promised  Emmanuel,  God 
with  us,  the  God  incarnate,  God  manifest  in  the  flesh, 
seen  of  angels,  believed  on  in  the  world;  the  manifes- 
tation of  Almighty  power  and  mercy,  demonstrated 
by  works  that  none  but  the  Almighty  Creator  and 
Preserver  of  men  could  perform.     If  such  a  person 


11^     Gocfs  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

apj)ears,  working  miracles,  and  referring  all  tilings  to 
Grod  as  His  Father,  it  will  prove  Him  incontestably 
.to  have  been  sent  from  God.  If  this  person  aj^pears 
saying  to  guilty  men,  conscious  of  their  transgressions 
against  God,  and  burdened  with  remorse  and  terror. 
Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee;  claiming  to  be  a  person 
in  His  own  right  forgiving  sins,  having  that  preroga- 
tive and  joower.  He  must  be  divine,  if  in  attestation 
of  the  truth  of  that  prerogative  He  reaUy  jjerforms  a 
miracle;  He  must  be  the  jjresent  God  incarnate,  for 
none  can  forgive  sins  but  God  only,  and  God  would 
never  sanction  such  a  pretense  by  conferring  upon 
such  a  person  the  power  of  working  mii'acles. 

There  are  three  realities,  or  possessions  of  knowl- 
edge and  experience  in  the  soul  of  man,  upon  which 
the  Appeal  of  Christ,  when  He  came  unto  His  own 
and  His  own  received  Him  not,  was  grounded;  the 
sense  of  immortaHty,  the  sense  of  guilt,  and  the  fear 
of  death. 

But  the  moment  an  existence  and  accountabihty 
beyond  the  grave  are  introduced,  and  the  power 
of  a  guilty  nature  and  its  consequences  in  another 
state  are  made  known  (especially  of  that  nature  as 
giving  the  law  there,  if  carried  unchanged  there,  es- 
tablishing character  forever  there),  that  moment  a  Sa- 
viovir  becomes  the  very  first  recpiisite  and  demonstra- 
tion of  divine  revelation,  a  forgiving  God  and  Saciour. 


Gaii's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     1 1^ 

Indeed  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  revelation 
from  God  without  this,  nor  any  possibiUty  of  any- 
thing that  really  reveals  this,  not  being  God's  own 
revelation. 

The  revelation  both  of  sin  and  its  eternal  conse- 
quences having  been  gradual,  so  has  been  the  rev- 
elation of  a  Saviour,  continued  and  accumulated  till 
the  fulness  of  time  should  come,  the  fulness  of  dem- 
onstration, the  all-sufficiency  of  the  redemption,  and 
the  cure,  and  the  preparation  of  an  army  of  ^redeemed 
witnesses,  to  certify  and  proclaim  the  cure  to  all 
mankind. 

And  therefore  comes  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord,  with 
the  grand  central  assurance  in  the  "faithful  saying, 
and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus  came 
into  the  world  to  save  sinners,"  "  Of  whom,"  says  Paul, 
"I  am  chief."  I  who  have  gone  further  than  even 
Cain  went,  or  any  other  sinner  that  ever  lived,  having 
claimed  God's  forgiveness  for  myself  as  being  a  son 
of  Abraham  and  a  keeper  of  the  law,  but  denied  it  to 
all  others,  and  especially  to  all  believers  in  the  Lamb 
of  God  Who  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world;  and  I 
being  exceedingly  mad  against  them,  murdered  them 
as  intruding  on  my  birthright;  which  Cain  never  did. 

Of  the  whole  army  of  experimental  witnesses  of  the 
forgiving  power  and  grace  of  Jesus  Christ  as  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh,  Paul  was  to  be  the  leader,  and 


ii6    God's  Timepiece  for  Ma7zs  Eternity. 

therefore  was  permitted,  with  all  his  claims  of  an  un- 
sullied morality  and  patriotic  piety,  to  fall  into  this 
great  guilt  of  the  murder  of  the  saints;  and  was  lifted 
out  of  the  gulf  of  consequent  unbelief  and  despair,  to 
be  the  world's  foremost  preacher  of  faith,  hope,  jus- 
tification through  Christ,  j^eace  with  God  and  grate- 
ful, all-constraining  love  to  Christ  as  the  life  and  joy 
of  redeemed  souls  forever  and  ever. 

There  being  these  two  extremes  of  falsehood 
and  error  growing  out  of  human  guilt  and  un- 
belief, first,  My  sin  is  greater  than  can  j)ossibly  be 
forgiven;  second.  My  sin  is  so  little  that  it  needs 
no  forgiveness  at  all,  or,  the  forgiveness  is  as  certain 
as  the  sin,  and  therefore  the  sin  itself  shaU  occa- 
sion no  separation  between  me  and  God; — there  was 
needed  the  enthronement  of  this  other  jDrinciple  or 
attribute  in  the  Divine  nature  and  administration, 
There  is  forgiveness  ivith  Thee  that  Thou  mayst  he 
feared.  If  there  were  no  eternal  evil  in  sin,  nor 
consequence  of  evil  fi'om  it,  then  there  would  be 
no  occasion  for  fear;  but  if  no  forgiveness  of  sin 
possible,  then  no  possibility  of  a  returning,  repent- 
ing, loving  fear,  no  possibility  or  room  for  any- 
thing but  despair  and  perpetuity  in  guilt.  Now 
then,  for  the  sign  of  the  Cross,  the  assurance  writ- 
ten in  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Lamb  of  God, 
who   taketh   away  the   sin   of  the  world,   that  there 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity,     iiy 

is  forgiveness  with  God,  and  eternal  redemption, 
that  He  may  be  both  feared  and  loved  forever. 

Of  all  these  truths  of  revealed  theology,  and  of 
man's  nature  and  God's  as  demonstrated  in  the  rev- 
elation, human  experience,  vast,  indisputable,  and 
from  age  to  age  accumulated,  has  become  the  wit- 
ness. You  cannot  put  it  to  death,  as  the  Jews 
sought  to  put  Lazarus.  It  rises  again  out  of  the 
tomb,  and  accompanies  you  all  through  life,  a  pres- 
ence that  you  cannot  bu.ry,  whether  Jew  or  Gentile; 
and  you  yourself  in  every  circumstance  and  j^eriod 
of  your  own  being,  do  but  add  to  the  testimony, 
whether  you  regard  it  or  not.  So  we  see  how  on 
all  sides  not  only  is  the  sense  of  sin,  the  conscious- 
ness of  its  gunt  and  misery,  necessary  to  the  first 
adequate  perception  of  the  evidences  of  Christianity, 
but  also  a  sense  of  forgiveness,  and  of  peace  with 
God,  through  Christ  dwelling  in  the  heart  by  faith, 
is  equally  necessary  to  constitute  a  witness  of  Christ's 
infinite  willingness  and  power  to  save  whoever  will. 

"Go  therefoi-e  to  Decapolis,  and  tell  how  great 
things  the  Lord  hath  done  for  thee."  Like  David 
of  old,  "Publish  with  the  voice  of  thanksgiving, 
and  tell  of  aU  His  wondrous  works."  The  earnest 
of  the  Spii'it  in  the  heart,  the  comfort  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  the  joy  of  salvation,  is  given  for  this  very 
purpose.     "Restore    unto    me    the    joy   of    Thy   sal- 


ii8     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

vation,  and  uphold  me  by  Thy  free  Spirit;  then 
will  I  teach  transgressors  Thy  ways,  and  sinners 
shall  be  converted  unto  Thee.  Open  Thou  my 
lips,  and  my  mouth  shall  show  forth  Thy  praise." 
"Thou  hast  brought  uj)  my  soul  from  the  grave, 
and  girded  me  with  gladness,  to  the  end  that  my 
soul  may  sing  j^raise  to  Thee,  and  not  be  silent.  O 
my  Grod,  I  will  give  thanks  unto  Thee  forever !  " — 
Psalms  51  and  30. 

Without  the  provision  of  a  succession  of  such  liv- 
ing forgiven  witnesses,  the  proofs  of  Christianity  from 
God  would  die  out,  notwithstanding  all  miracles,  and 
the  world  would  be  left  in  darkness.  But  God,  by 
the  very  operation  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  acting 
in  men's  hearts,  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Sjoirit,  pro- 
vides the  succession  of  such  witnesses;  and  in  the  na- 
ture and  development  of  His  kingdom  they  never  can 
be  wanting.  That  inalienable  sense  of  sin,  which  is 
the  ground- wave  of  the  tide  of  human  consciousness, 
makes  a  man  see  and  feel  the  truth  of  the  system 
revealed  by  Christ  the  Saviour,  the  truth  of  all  rev- 
elation fi'om  Adam's  sin  downward,  the  truth  of  the 
fall  of  man,  and  of  God's  interposition  for  his  re- 
demption. 

The  accumulating  consciousness  of  every  age,  and 
the  breaking  surge  and  roar  of  every  novel  tide 
of  resisting,  unwilling,  unbelieving  philosojihy,  prove 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,     iig 

this.  Self-will  in  conflict  with  God's  will,  once  chosen, 
once  committed,  and  the  creature,  by  his  own  choice 
committed  to  it,  can  no  more  be  returned  from, 
by  mere  discovery  of  the  consequences,  than  a  re- 
morseful murderer  can  bring  back  his  victim  into  life. 
The  embrace  of  crime  changes  the  soul,  and  its  rela- 
tions with  God  and  the  universe.  Cain  could  no  more 
have  changed  his  own  nature,  after  the  killing  of  his 
brother,  and  the  adoption  of  the  savage  rule,  "  Am  I 
my  brother's  keeper,"  than  he  could  have  given  again, 
at  a  wish  or  a  word  of  remorse  and  sorrow,  the  sa- 
cred hfe  and  form  of  immortality  to  the  ashes  of  his 
buried  victim. 

And  then  the  man  so  changed  begets  a  self-wiU 
in  his  own  likeness.  Physiological  science  tells  us 
with  a  terrible  emphasis  and  solemnity  how  inju- 
ries of  the  embryo,  and  hereditary  disturbances,  be- 
ginning in  the  outhne  of  the  substance  of  the  ^^g, 
may  be  produced  and  perpetuated  in  successive  gen- 
erations; and  a  man's  or  mother's  wUl  may  carry 
down  the  constitiitional  propensities  of  the  drunk- 
ard to  a  far  jDosterity.  Geological  science  tells  us 
that  a  bone  of  Cain's  skeleton,  could  it  have  been 
found  in  the  strata  of  a  prehistoric  world,  would 
have  demonstrated  him  to  have  belonged  to  this 
present  human  race;  and  certainly  a  nerve  laid  bare 
of  Cain's  moral  experience  is  enough  for  demonstra- 


120     God's  Timepiece  for  Maris  Eternity. 

tion  that  sucli  is  tlie  normal  experience  of  like  hu- 
man guilt  through  the  successive  ages  of  its  descent 
as  a  characteristic  of  self-willed  humanity. 

Without  supernatural  intervention,  how  can  it  pro- 
duce a  sj^ecies  above  itself,  or  nearer  to  God  than  its 
own  image;  nor  can  it  have  power  to  change  itself, 
any  more  than  the  skeleton  of  a  megatherium  could 
by  natural  selection  rise  out  of  death  with  its  fore- 
legs expanded  into  wings  as  of  angels,  and  its  hind 
feet  provided  with  muscular  attachments,  enabhng 
it,  by  pulleys  in  the  vertebral  column,  to  stand  up- 
right as  a  man.  Only  God,  who  made  man  upright, 
can  raise  him  up  after  a  voluntary  renouncement 
of  that  uj^rightness.  Only  the  Creator  can  new- 
create  His  own  work.  Man  cannot  possibly  have 
the  j)0wer  to  be  one  day  God's  friend,  another, 
God's  enemy, — one  day  His  enemy,  another  His 
fi-iend,— to  change  from  one  condition  and  charac- 
ter to  the  other  at  His  pleasure,  and  no  lasting 
consequences.  The  jjermission  of  such  a  creature, 
the  sustaining  of  such  a  machine,  would  be  an 
anomaly  subversive  of  all  our  ideas  of  wisdom  and 
hohness  in  the  governor  of  a  universe  of  moral 
beings. 

The  existence  of  man  as  a  witness  or  indicator 
of  the  will  of  God  would  be  imiDOSsible.  Of  what 
use  could  a  watch  be  that  stopped  whenever  it  chose, 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     121 

and  went  again  whenever  it  chose,  once  oi'  a  dozen 
times  in  the  twenty -four  hours,  and  not  a  notice  given 
or  possible,  of  the  point  of  change  or  stoj)page.  Stop- 
ping once  for  five  minutes  or  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
makes  the  watch  false  all  day  long,  without  your  know- 
ing it.  You  never  can  tell  the  time.  And  if  you 
discover  the  stoppage  and  set  it  right,  yet  it  may  oc- 
cur five  minutes  afterwards  in  your  watch  pocket,  and 
in  the  course  of  an  hour  start  again,  so  that,  when 
you  have  occasion  again  to  look  at  your  watch,  j^ou 
might  as  well  be  looking  at  the  sparrows  on  the 
house-tops,  for  any  note  of  time  to  guide  you. 

You  are  sure  to  be  false  with  a  watch  that  stops 
when  it  pleases  and  gives  you  no  notice;  goes  again 
when  it  pleases,  and  you  know  not  that  it  has  stopped. 
It  is  good  for  nothing  but  to  lie.  And  such  would 
man  be,  even  as  a  mere  machine,  with  the  faculty 
and  habit  of  stoj)ping  and  disobeying  God  at  pleas- 
ure, denying  Him  one  day  and  confessing  Him  the 
next,  without  lasting  consequences  of  misery  from 
the  denial,  or  gain  of  hapj)iness  from  the  confession. 
It  is  imjDossible  that  such  a  state  of  things  can  exist 
in  the  universe.  The  friend  of  God,  the  man  that 
would  testify  truly  of  Him,  or  receive  testimony,  or 
the  confirmation  of  it  by  mii-acles  from  Him,  must 
be  one  doing  the  will  of  God. 


122     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 


XYI. 

TREATMENT  OF  THE  CLAIMS  OF  CHRIST  BY  THE 
JEWS  JUDGED  ACCORDING  TO  THEIR  OWN  LIGHT 
AND  KNOWLEDGE  —  THEIR  POSSESSION  OF  THE 
POWER  OF  CORRECT  REASONING  FROM  THE  PHI- 
LOSOPHY OF  THE  SCRIPTURES— FORGIVENESS  OF 
SIN  IMPOSSIBLE  BUT  BY  GOD  ONLY— IF  THIS  MAN 
WERE  NOT  OF  GOD,  HE  COULD  DO  NOTHING— 
EVERY  MAN  HIS  OWN  LABORATORY,  AND  THE 
POWER  OF  HIS  OWN  EXPERIMENT  LAID  AT  HIS 
OWN  DOOR— BUT  ANY  EXPERIMENT  BEYOND  THE 
GRAVE,  IMPOSSIBLE,  AND  THIS  MEN  KNOW  BE- 
FOREHAND. 

Here  the  good  sense  of  the  Jews  was  manifested, 
in  some  remarkable  instances  of  their  intercourse 
with  Christ,  and  their  treatment  of  His  claims;  and 
there  is  to  be  noted  the  evident  national  possession 
of  a  jDower  of  correct  reasoning,  derived  only  from 
their  long  heritage  of  the  Scriptures  of  divine  truth, 
and  their  familiarity  with  them.  They  were  the  best 
philosophers,  with  all  theii-  faults,  the  least  carried 
away  by  mere  siDeculation,  in  the  world;  that  is,  tbo 
common  people,  who  heard  Christ  gladly;  for  they 
had  a  rugged  and  shrewd  common  sense  that  might 
have  made  each  of  them,  touched  with  the  foresight 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Bternity.     12 j 

of  tlieii-  coming  Messiah,  and  humbled  in  the  sense 
of  theu"  need  of  Him,  a  Plato  or  a  Socrates,  com- 
bining the  qualities  of  Peter  and  John.  The  ninth 
chapter  of  John's  Gospel  is  a  wonderfully  graphic 
representation  of  their  characteristics. 

"  Give  God  the  praise,"  said  the  carping  Pharisees, 
"but  this  man  is  a  sinner." 

"Whether  he  be  a  sinner  or  not,"  said  the  victim 
of  theii'  cross-examinations,  "I  know  not;  but  one 
thing  I  do  know,  that  whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I 
see;  and  another  thing  I  know,  that  He  healed  me. 
Now  we  all  know  that  God  heareth  not  sinners,  but 
if  any  man  be  a  worshipjDer  of  God,  and  doeth  His 
will,  him  He  heareth.  If  this  man  were  not  of  God, 
He  coidd  do  nothing." 

And  this  is  the  very  climax  of  demonstration  and 
belief  to  which  the  world  needed  to  be  brought; 
in  order  to  such  a  trust  in  God,  such  an  ajj- 
proach  and  return  to  Him  on  the  j^art  of  sinful 
creatures,  as  a  God  inviting  men  to  be  forgiven, 
a  God  with  whom  is  forgiveness  that  He  may  be 
feared,  a  God  whose  attribute,  as  well  as  right  and 
power,  is  that  of  a  forgiving  God.  Because,  mani- 
festly, with  none  other  God  can  we  have  anything 
to  do;  for  if  we  cannot  be  forgiven,  there  is  nothing 
for  us  but  despair;  so  that  the  demonstration  of  a 
forgiving  God  is  our  one,  vast,  indispensable  requi- 


12^     God's  Timepiece  for  Mcuis  Eternity. 

site.  A  forgiving  God,  or  none,  is  what  the  soul  of 
man  must  have,  what  it  cries  out  after,  what  the 
whole  world's  schoolmaster  in  the  Old  Testament 
reveals  and  mercifully  urges,  and  what  the  whole 
possibility  of  repentance  and  grateful  trust  and  love 
and  obedience  from  the  heart  is  grounded  in. 

This  manifestation  is  in  Christ,  and  in  Him  only, 
correspondent  with  the  preparations  and  promises 
set  forth  in  the  only  religion  that  ever  pretended 
to  meet  the  wants  and  longings  of  the  world  of  im- 
mortal beings  burdened  with  sinj^the  rehgion  of 
the  Old  Testament.  And  the  appearing  of  Christ, 
in  the  fulness  of  time,  with  these  prerogatives, 
demonstrated  by  every  species  of  evidence  that  a 
sane  and  humble  mind  requires,  is  the  divine,  irre- 
sistible, and  perfect  demonstration  of  a  present  God. 

His  appearing  as  the  Physician  and  Healer  of 
the  sin-sick  soul;  His  coming  and  preaching  to  lost 
sinners  as  such,  not  to  condemn  them,  but  to 
seek  and  save  them;  His  announcement  of  having 
come  not  to  call  the  righteous,  but  sinners  to  re- 
jisntance;  His  assurance  of  having  left  the  bosom  of 
His  Father  for  that  very  object,  and  for  nothing  else; 
His  grasp  of  the  greatness  and  urgency  of  that  ob- 
ject; His  cardinal  question  for  the  whole  race  of 
mankind.  What  shall  it  profit  a  man,  if  he  gain  the 
whole  world,  and  lose  his  own  sovil  ?     His  unveihng  to 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     12^ 

all  men  their  innermost  character,  and  theii'  one  uni- 
versal need;  His  proclamation  of  Himself,  not  as 
King  of  the  Jews  merely,  nor  of  any  earthly  race 
or  kingdom,  but  as  man's  Redeemer  fi-om  sin  and 
death  accordant  with  the  divine  name  bestowed  at 
His  coming  into  the  world,  "Thou  shalt  call  His  name 
Jesus,  for  He  shall  save  His  people  from  theii"  sins  " : — 
All  this  is  the  manifest  deity  of  "Him  that  loved  us 
and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  His  own  blood;  to  whom 
be  glory  and  dominion  forever  and  ever.     Amen." 

But  all  this  is  so  utterly  superhuman,  suj)ernatural, 
impossible  to  mere  nature  even  in  conception  or  imag- 
ination, and  in  execution,  in  performance,  still  more 
impossible,  that  for  any  man  to  arrogate  this  as  his 
mission  would  be  to  set  himself  forth  in  the  stocks  of  a 
world-wide  madness  and  falsehood,  to  put  himself  in 
the  grip  of  a  demonstrated  insanity;  only,  that  the  con- 
cej)tion  and  announcement  of  the  mission  would  of 
itself  be  proof  of  inspiration  and  suj)erhuman  truth. 

But  here  it  is;  and  the  very  claim  makes  the  impos- 
ture incredible,  so  that  befoi-e  its  shining  the  clouds 
and  darkness  flee  away,  and  it  is  as  the  light  out  of 
darkness,  or  as  the  sun  shot  forth  into  chaos.  And 
Christ's  putting  Himself,  His  character,  (which  of  you 
convinceth  Me  of  sin  ?),  His  claims,  there  in  the  very 
focus  of  that  concentration  of  divine  light  and  i^revious 
demonstration  in  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  and 


126     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

in  the  corresponding  experience  of  all  mankind; — • 
there  under  the  test  of  that  combined  telescope  and 
microscope  in  one,  the  telescope  of  faith,  prophecy, 
and  fore  drawn  characteristics,  and  the  microscope  of 
human  nature,  jealousy,  acuteness,  enmity,  unbelief, 
scrutiny  of  resistible  claims — all  this  was  a  movement 
incapable  of  being  supported,  except  by  the  divine 
reahty;  a  movement  of  which  every  attempt  at  support 
would  only  have  involved  a  more  desperate  failure. 

The  God  who  is  the  object  of  worship  and  thanks- 
giving in  the  Old  Testament,  is  a  God  forgiving  men's 
iniquities  and  healing  their  sicknesses.  When  His 
Representative  on  earth  should  come.  He  was  to  come 
wath  those  two  qualities  and  powers  of  divine  benevo- 
lence. "Bless  the  Lord,  O  my  soul,  and  all  that  is 
within  me  bless  His  holy  name.  Bless  the  Lord,  O 
my  soul,  and  forget  not  any  of  His  benefits.  Who 
forgiveth  aU  thine  iniquities !  " 

That,  and  not  health  or  wealth  merel}^,  is  the  first 
thing,  the  first  characteristic  of  a  God  of  infinite  mercy 
and  love;  the  first  obligation  of  gratitude  is  there;  the 
first  and  only  real  need  of  the  soul,  and  of  man's  life, 
is  there ;  and  that  is,  in  one  view,  the  main  view,  the 
whole  of  divine  revelation,  the  thing  without  which  there 
would  have  been  no  revelation  at  all,  nor  any  bless- 
edness in  it,  nor  any  use  for  it.  Who  healeth  all  thy 
diseases,    is   a   secondary   claim    of   grateful   worship 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     12'/ 

and  love,  growing  out  of  the  first.  And  the  one 
grand  reality  for  men  to  believe,  is  the  first,  that 
they  may  come  to  God  in  assiu-ance  of  His  forgiving 
mercy ;  and  feehng  theii"  need  of  such  mercy,  all 
knowledge  and  all  discipline  ma}^  be  a  divine  path- 
way to  lead  them  to  God  for  it;  that  being  the  only 
possible  condition  of  blessedness  and  life  eternal. 

But  this  once  gained,  aU  was  gained.  The  quaHty 
of  being  forgiven  is  that  of  being  thoroughly  redeemed 
and  cleansed  from  sin,  fi'om  its  power  and  its  conse- 
quences, from  its  misery-making,  sickening,  deform- 
ing, soul-destroying  teiTor  and  desolation.  A  soul 
forgiven  hath  all  its  transgressions  removed,  the  love, 
the  habit,  the  disease  of  sin  extirpated,  as  a  leper 
was  wholly  cleansed,  the  blood  purified,  the  flesh  re- 
stored as  clean  and  fi'esh  and  sweet  as  that  of  an 
infant,  when  once  the  miracle  of  divine  healing  was 
j)erformed.  No  man  was  ever  forgiven,  or  ever  will 
be,  but  was  taught  to  hate  sin  and  love  God  and 
holiness;  no  man  was  ever  forgiven,  to  return  to  his 
iniquities,  and  take  back  and  bear  again  the  burden, 
of  which  God  had  first  made  him  heart-sick  even  unto 
death,  and  then  had  taken  it  away  and  restored  him 
to  life.  Now  the  indestructible  consciousness  of  man- 
kind, once  awakened  and  quickened  by  the  knowledge 
of  sin,  feels  and  knows  that  a  dehverance  from  sin, 
and  a  restoration  and  new-creation  of  the  piu'ity  of 


128     God  s  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity. 

God  within  the  soul,  carries  with  it  all  needed  bless- 
ings, all  happiness,  all  grace  and  glory. 

If  men  are  once  made  to  feel  this,  and  in  the 
freshness  and  strength  of  this  conviction  can  be 
made  to  believe  in  a  forgiving  God  and  Saviour, 
and  to  come  to  Him  for  such  mercy; — tliat  is  the 
work  of  salvation,  that  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
on  earth,  that  is  Christ's  mission  from  the  Father. 
Here  then  we  see  the  object  and  end  of  the  divine 
miracles  of  healing,  and  every  other  exercise  of  Al- 
mighty power  wrought  by  Christ  on  earth,  to  con- 
vince men  of  His  jjower  to  forgive,  and  to  persuade 
men  to  come  to  Him  for  such  forgiveness.  Here  is 
the  Orb  of  that  lightning  of  God's  Love,  brighter  than 
the  sun,  turned  upon  Christ's  woi'ks,  "  That  ye  may 
know  that  the  Son  of  man  hath  j)ower  on  earth  to 
forgive  sins;  then  saith  He  to  the  sick  of  the  j)alsy," 
— to  whom  He  had  before  given  the  soul-cheering 
assurance,  "Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee," — ^" Arise, 
take  up  thy  bed,  and  go  to  thine  house."  That  ye 
may  know  that  there  is  such  jDower  from  God  on 
earth;  that  it  inheres  in  Me,  your  Saviour;  that  I 
have  come  to  be  your  deliverer,  youi'  Redeemer  from 
sin  and  death  eternal,  which  alone  can  make  sickness 
and  death  dreadful;  that  ye  may  know  that  there 
is  on  earth  the  Divine  Being  promised  in  your  Scrip- 
tures, to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost;  that 


God's  Timepiece  for  Man  '^  Eternity.     T2g 

ye  may  know  such  glory,  such  mercy  from  God  your 
Father,  and  may  be  encouraged  and  induced  to  ap- 
ply to  ]\Ie  for  it,  and  receive  from  Me  the  forgive- 
ness and  eternal  life  which   I   offer. 

Now  let  any  man  read  in  this  connection  the  tender 
and  inimitably  pathetic  and  encouraging  seventh  chap- 
ter of  Luke;  our  Lord's  free  forgiveness  of  the  woman 
of  the  city  that  was  a  sinner,  and  His  own  loving  ap- 
preciation of  her  grateful  penitence  and  love  in  wash- 
ing His  feet  with  her  tears,  and  wiping  them  with  the 
hairs  of  her  head;  and  the  astonishment  and  indigna- 
tion of  the  Pharisee  that  had  invited  Christ,  and  of  the 
guests  that  were  j)artakers  of  the  feast  with  Him ;  and 
he  cannot  faU  to  see  a  new  proof  of  the  Deity  and  di- 
vine comi^assion  of  the  Saviour,  as  our  High  Priest 
and  Advocate  with  God,  touched  with  the  feeling  of 
our  infirmities,  tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin, 
who  was  Himself  to  taste  even  the  misery  of  despair  in 
the  soul  forsaken  of  God,  that  He  might  know  how  to 
succor,  in  the  last  extreme,  the  souls  that  are  thus 
tempted.  Despair  of  forgiveness  in  this  life,  is  the 
terror  of  death  and  hell  beforehand. 

And  not  one  of  these  words  of  mercy  can  be  spared, 
nor  the  significance  of  any  of  them  diminished.  The 
seventy  times  seven  in  Matt,  xviii.  22,  are  truer  to  the 
text  and  context,  and  to  the  character  and  work  of 
Christ  the  Redeemer,  than  the  seven  times  to  which 


I  JO     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

"  some  authorities "  would  reduce  them ;  and  the 
words,  "  to  save  that  which  was  lost,"  infinitely  more 
likely  to  have  been  repeated  in  two  of  the  gospels, 
than  interpolated  In.  any. 

Luke's  Gospel  and  John's,  are  pre-eminently  the 
gospels  of  forgiving  mercy  and  love;  and  not  one  of 
the  instances  or  illustrations  of  Christ's  exercise  of  the 
divine  attribute  of  forgiveness  can  we  afford  to  give 
aj);  especially  such  as  are  contained  in  the  seventh 
chai:)ter  of  Luke,  and  the  eighth  of  John,  and  the 
eighteenth  of  Matthew;  jewels  of  inspiration  beyond 
all  price,  each  of  them  affording  a  combination  talis- 
man, or  key,  to  unlock  the  mysteries  of  redemption  in 
the  whole  Bible. 


XYIL 

THE  CENTRAL  EVIDENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN  THE 
CHARACTER  OF  CHRIST,  AND  THE  EXPERIENCE  OF 
FORGIVENESS,  FROM  HIM— COMBINATIONS  OF  PROM- 
ISES AND  WARNINGS,  EACH  CO-EXTENSIVE  WITH 
ETERNITY— GOD'S  ALARM-BELLS  OF  DEATH,  AND 
JUBILEE  CHIMES  OF  SALVATION— THE  PILLAR  AND 
GROUND  OF  THE  TRUTH  IN  THE  CHURCH  OF  GOD'S 
WITNESSES. 

This  is,  beyond  question,  the  mighty  central  ev- 
idence of  Christianity ;  namely,  the  character  of 
Christ    in    this   one   respect    of   the    ability  to    take 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,     iji 

away  sin,  the  autliority  and  power  in  Himself  to 
forgive  sin;  and  therefore  His  coming  from  the 
Father,  according  to  the  promise  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament Scriptures,  for  this  one  object,  the  for- 
giveness and  sanctification  of  mankind.  To  this 
demonstration,  so  much  needed  in  the  greatest 
possible  clearness  and  power,  all  Christ's  miracles 
were  turned;  for  this  object  He  and  the  Father 
worked  them  together,  the  Father  in  attestation 
of  the  Son,  the  Son  in  proof  of  His  divine  oneness 
with  the  Father.  He  takes  in  hand  the  greatest 
outward  and  inward  proofs  of  human  misery,  and 
manifestations  of  the  dreadful  power  and  conse- 
quences of  human  guilt  in  the  body  and  the  soul. 
He  takes  the  leper,  banished  from  society,  and  the 
palsied  and  bedridden,  and  those  possessed  of  evil 
spirits,  and  wandering  in  the  congregation  of  the 
dead;  sometimes  at  their  own  pi*ayer,  sometimes 
at  the  prayer  of  others;  but  always  for  this  one 
compassionate  and  merciful  purpose,  to  lead  the 
souls  of  the  lost  in  confidence  to  Himself,  to  draw 
them  into  that  faith,  and  so  bring  them  back  to 
God.  The  object  of  all  miracles  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world  and  its  human  apostacy,  is  just 
this,  to  turn  men's  hearts  from  sin  and  Satan  unto 
God,  to  induce  them  to  apply  with  faith  to  Him, 
for   the   greatest   of   all   miracles,    and    the    most    ne- 


1^2     God's  Timepiece  for  AIa7ts  Eternity. 

cessary  of  all  blessings,  even  the  forgiveness  of  their 
sins. 

To  make  that  forgiveness  the  covenanted  inher- 
itance of  all  believers  in  God  was  the  object  of  Christ's 
assuming  our  nature,  Christ  becoming  incarnate,  and 
living  a  divine-human  life  on  the  earth.  But  for 
that,  there  were  no  need  of  His  coming,  nor  justi- 
fication of  His  dying,  if  there  were  no  eternal  death 
in  sin  beyond  the  grave,  and  therefore  no  need  of 
forgiveness;  if  men  without  forgiveness  were  not  lost 
forever,  or  if  they  could  have  been  forgiven  without 
His  death.  For  what  reason  for  His  coming,  to  seek 
and  to  save  that  which  was  never  lost  ?  What  reason, 
if  that  which  was  lost  was  only  temporarily  mislaid, 
and  sure  of  a  final  recovery  in  the  natural  work- 
ing of  things,  there  being  no  such  reality  or  possi- 
bility as  that  of  the  eternal  death  and  ruin  of  a 
soul  in  Grod's  universe,  but  aU  souls  as  sure  of  com- 
ing at  last  to  the  glory  and  happiaess  of  God's  eter- 
nal kingdom,  as  of  having  begun  their  existence? 
Therefore  the  demonstrations  of  God's  law,  the  prep- 
arations for  Christ's  coming,  the  array  and  continu- 
ance of  miracles,  the  sudden  rush  and  glory  of  them 
at  His  advent,  as  witnesses  of  God  for  Him;  and  the 
combination  of  awful  warnings,  and  infinite  seraphic 
promises  and  assurances  contained  in  them. 

They  were  God's  alarm-bells  and  Jubilee  chimes 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,     ijj 

of  salvation;  the  red  lights  of  warning,  and  the  trum- 
pets of  the  watchmen,  as  in  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel. 
The  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die !  God's  tocsin;  the 
axe  laid  at  the  roots  of  the  tree;  the  whole  universe 
astii*  with  flames,  and  vocal  with  messages,  to  awaken 
the  soul,  and  call  it  from  the  reign  of  death  to  Him 
who  alone  gives  life;  to  hear  Him,  to  believe  in  Him, 
to  be  healed  by  Him,  and  restored  to  etei*nal  health 
and  blessedness.  They  were  the  convergency  of  aU 
trains  of  knowledge  and  demonstration,  and  all  modes 
of  G-od's  providential  discipline,  upon  that  infinitely 
blessed  message,  set  vibrating  in  men's  hearts,  con- 
sciences, and  reason,  from  the  very  beginning  of  sin 
and  death  in  human  nature:  "Behold  the  Lamb  of 
God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of    the  world ! '" 

"Good  and  upright  is  the  Lord;  therefore  will 
He  teach  sinners  in  the  way  of  Life ; "  nor  is 
there  anything  that  can  or  could  be  done  for  this 
purj)Ose,  that  He  has  not  set  in  motion,  to  make 
men  see,  feel,  and  know  their  need  of  such  divine  in- 
tervention.*    The  intervention  promised  was  the  be- 

*  Consider  the  exquisitely  beautiful  condensed  description  in 
Herbert's  Sonnet,  of  the  warning,  loving,  and  inviting,  redeem- 
ing discipline  of  God,  in  the  Word  and  its  institutes,  for  the 
good  of  all  mankind: — 

"Lord,  with  what  care  hast  Thou  begirt  us  round  ! 
Parents  first  season  us;  then  schoolmasters 


IJ4     Gods  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity. 

ginning  of  the  proof;  the  intervention  completed  and 
experienced  is  the  completion  and  fulfilment  of  the 
proof,  brought  down  for  every  man's  trial  or  ex- 
periment, and  laid  as  it  were  at  the  threshold  of 
every  man's  soul  as  of  old  at  Cain's,  a  sin-offering 
at  the  door;  or  as  at  the  escaping  of  the  Hebrews 
from  Egypt,  the  sprinkUng  of  blood  uj)on  the  door- 
posts; an  experiment  for  every  family  and  every  man 
to  make  by  themselves,  by  the  exercise  of  their  own 
faith.  This  exj)eriment  was  what  Christ  demanded, 
and  still  demands,  of  each  person,  because  each 
person  can  make  it.  Each  man  is  his  own  scientific 
laboratory,  for  himself,  wdth  all  the  means  requisite 
for  investigation  and  satisfaction  of  the  truth.  Re- 
ligion is  most  perfectly  of  all  things  the  science  of 
experiment  and  demonstration.  There  is  no  uncer- 
tainty about  it,  and  all  radical   doubt  in  regard  to 


Deliver  us  to  laws;  they  send  us  bound 

To  rules  of  reason;  lioly  messengers — 
Pulpits  and  Sundays;  sorrow  dogging  sin; 

Afflictions  sorted;  anguish  of  all  sizes; 
Fine  nets  and  stratagems  to  catch  us  in; 

Bibles  laid  open;  millions  of  surprises; 
Blessings  beforehand;  ties  of  gratefulness; 

The  sound  of  glory  ringing  in  our  ears; 
Without,  our  shame;  within,  our  consciences; 

Angels  and  grace;  eternal  hopes  and  fears: — 
Yet  all  these  fences,  and  their  whole  array, 
One  cunning  bosom-sik  blows  quite  away  ! " 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,     ij^ 

it  is  just  merely  a  consequence  of  not  trying  the 
experiment  for  ourselves. 

But  after  all,  experiment  is  only  an  aid  to  our  faith, 
only  a  servant,  not  the  master.  Experiment  beyond 
the  grave  is  impossible  in  this  world;  all  our  knowl- 
edge of  what  takes  place  there,  must  be  from  God's 
testimony,  on  God's  authority,  received  from  Him 
by  faith  in  Him,  without  which  faith  it  is,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  impossible  to  please  God.  This 
faith,  followed  by  its  consequences  through  the  in- 
variable attendance  and  grace  of  God's  Spirit  in  the 
soul,  produces  witnesses  that  the  most  rigid  science  can 
have  nothing  to  object  against.  This  faith  wrought 
these  quahfications  of  a  witnessing  demonstration  in 
our  Lord's  apostles  and  earhest  disciples,  by  the 
working  of  truths  drawn  from  the  only  divine  rev- 
elation ever  given  fi'om  Heaven,  and  put  beyond  dis- 
pute by  the  transformation  of  their  own  characters 
from  common  human  nature  and  life  into  the  char- 
acter and  life  of  Christ,  as  formed  in  them  the  hope 
of  glory,  and  they  themselves  changed  into  His  image 
from  glory  to  glory,  by  His  Spirit  dwelling  in  them. 

The  Church  of  such  witnesses  is  the  Pillar  and 
Ground  of  the  Truth,  holding  forth  the  Word  of 
Life,  lifting  up  on  high,  in  the  sight  of  heaven  and 
earth,  the  Volume  of  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ, 
RECONCILING   THE   WORLD   UNTO    Himself;    a    life-giving 


Ij6     Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

demonstration  of  the  Scrijitures,  acting  them  out, 
teaching,  interj^reting,  dramatizing,  attracting;  con- 
stituting, in  visible  immortality,  from  generation  to 
generation,  such  a  living  temple  and  Sliekinah  of 
Christ's  spiritual  power  and  glory,  that  the  gates  of 
hell  can  never  prevail  against  it. 


XYIII. 

DEMONSTRATION  OF  A  SPIRITUAL  ETERNAL  KING- 
DOM OF  GRACE  AND  GLORY— ALL  NATIONS  SHALL 
CALL  HIM  BLESSED,  AND  THE  WHOLE  EARTH 
SHALL   BE  FILLED  WITH   HIS   GLORY. 

All  this  is  divinely-revealed  prediction  and  fulfil- 
ment with  thousands  of  years  of  growth  and  prepara- 
tion between  the  first  announcement  and  the  Pente- 
costal result.  Then  proceeds,  with  miraculous  power 
and  glory,  the  ministry  of  the  witnesses,  in  "the 
preaching  of  Jesus  Christ,  according  to  the  revelation 
of  the  mystery  made  manifest  by  the  Scriptures  of  the 
Prophets,  and  by  the  commandment  of  the  Everlast- 
ing God  made  known  to  all  nations  for  the  obedience 
of  faith."  "  That  in  the  ages  to  come,  and  unto  prin- 
cipalities and  powers  in  heavenly  places,  might  be 
known  by  the  Church  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God ; 
that  the   name   of    om-  Lord   Jesus   Christ   may   be 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,     ijy 

glorified  in  His  saints,  and  they  in  Him,  accoi*ding  to 
the  grace  of  our  God  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

All  this  is  the  reality  of  a  spiritual  Eternal  King- 
dom of  believing  regenerated  souls;  a  kingdom  of 
witnesses  by  experimental  knowledge;  the  nature  of 
which  kingdom  is  oj)enly  illustrated  in  the  character 
and  conduct  of  its  new-created  subjects  and  citizens, 
and  by  facts  seen  and  known,  and  holy  principles, 
eternally  active  through  the  operation  of  divine  truths 
breathed  within  the  soul  by  the  Holy  Spirit;  truths 
first  postulated  as  infallible  for  man's  guidance,  and 
then  presented  for  voluntary  trial  and  belief,  that 
there  may  be  a  free,  heart-felt,  unbiased  reception  of 
them;  and  then  and  thus,  with  open  appeal  to  every 
man's  reason  and  conscience  in  the  sight  of  Grod, 
demonstrated  both  by  individual  experience  and  ex- 
ternal testimony. 

And  so  accords  our  Lord's  own  announcement  be- 
forehand: "Ye  shall  receive  power  after  that  the  Holy 
Grhost  is  come  upon  you;  and  ye  shall  be  witnesses 
unto  Me  both  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea,  and  in 
Samaria,  and  unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth ; " 
witnesses  unto  Me,  for  this  purpose,  to  open  men's 
eyes,  and  to  turn  them  from  darkness  to  light,  and 
from  the  power  of  Satan  unto  Grod,  "that  they  may 
receive  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  inheritance  among 
them  that  are  sanctified  by  faith  that  is  in  Me."     Wit- 


1^8     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

nesses  to  Me  through  experience  of  the  same  new- 
creatmg  life  given  unto  you  that  ye  may  transmit  it 
unto  them,  and  they  unto  others.  This  divine  testify- 
ing power  and  magnetism  of  faith  in  Christ  was  to 
pass  down  through  the  whole  Church  of  witnesses  to 
the  last  day;  and  for  one  and  the  same  mighty  pur- 
pose of  divine  benevolence  it  was  sealed  to  a  certainty 
of  fulfilment  by  our  Lord's  wondrous  prayer:  "Nei- 
ther pray  I  for  these  alone,  but  for  those  who  shall 
believe  on  Me  through  their  word;  that  they  all  may 
be  one,  as  Thou,  Father,  art  in  Me,  and  I  in  Thee, 
that  they  also  may  be  one  in  us,  that  the  world  may 
believe  that  Thou  hast  sent  Me.  And  the  glory  which 
Thou  gavest  Me  I  have  given  them,  that  they  may  be 
one,  even  as  we  are  one.  I  in  them  and  Thou  in  Me, 
that  they  may  be  made  perfect  in  one,  and  that  the 
world  may  know  that  Thou  hast  sent  Me,  and  hast 
loved  them,  as  Thou  hast  loved  Me." 

So,  then,  the  perfection  of  Christian  evidence,  that 
which  Grod's  reason  in  God's  Word  and  in  man's  mind 
demands  as  the  ground  of  absolute  knowledge, — that 
the  world  may  know,  that  it  may  be  put  beyond  rea- 
sonable doubt  by  such  knowledge  from  such  testi- 
mony— is  the  visible  immortality  on  earth,  from  gen- 
eration to  generation,  of  such  a  witnessing  church  as 
was  predicted  and  described  in  the  Old  Testament, 
and  assumed  and  established  by  Christ  in  the  New, 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    ijg 

against  wliich  the  gates  of  hell  shovild  never  prevail. 
Let  any  man  connect  and  compare  some  of  the  bat- 
talion passages  in  Moses  and  the  prophets  and  the 
psalms,  with  those  in  the  gospels,  Acts,  and  epistles, 
and  he  wUl  see  realized  the  sublime  imagery  in  Eze- 
kiel,  of  "  the  whirlwind  of  fire  infolding  itself,  and  the 
living  creatures  running  and  returning  as  the  appear- 
ance of  a  flash  of  lightning,  and  the  noise  of  their 
wings,  like  the  noise  of  great  waters,  as  the  Voice  of 
THE  Almighty." 

Let  him  take  such  psalms  as  the  22d,  45th,  48th, 
66th,  68th,  72d,  78th,  89th,  102d,  110th,  145th,  along 
with  Isaiah,  chapters  xlix.  to  liii.  and  Iv.,  lix.  and  Ix., 
Ixi.  and  Ixii. ;  and  then  in  connection  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament, Matt.  xvi.  18;  John  xv.  26,  27;  xvi.  13;  xvii. 
20,  21;— Eph.  i.  17-23;  ii.  19-22;  iii.  8-10;  iv.  12-16; 
— I  Tim.  iii.  15,  16.  The  comparison  is  overwhelm- 
ing; the  succession  of  proofs  is  drawn  out,  from  gen- 
eration to  generation,  and  was  concentrated  by  Peter 
in  his  first  sermons  to  Jews  and  Gentiles,  beginning 
with  Abraham,  Moses,  and  all  the  prophets,  as  in  the 
following  passages  in  chapters  iii.,  v.,  and  x.  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles:  "The  Word  which  God  sent 
unto  the  children  of  Israel,  preaching  peace  by  Jesus 
Christ;  He  is  Lord  of  aU;  how  God  anointed  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  power;  and 
we  are  witnesses  of  all  things  which  He  did,  and  of 


1^0     Gods  Ti7nepiece  for  Man's  Eternity. 

His  deatli  and  resurrection,  having  eaten  and  drunk 
with  Him  after  He  rose  from  the  dead;  and  He  com- 
manded us  to  preach  unto  the  people,  and  to  testify 
that  it  is  He  who  was  ordained  of  God  to  be  the 
Judge  of  quick  and  dead." 

"  To  Him  give  all  the  j^rophets  witness,  that  through 
His  name  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  shall  receive 
remission  of  sins.  Him  hath  God  exalted,  a  Prince 
and  Saviour,  to  give  repentance  to  Israel,  and 
forgiveness  of  sins.  And  we  are  His  witnesses  of 
these  things;  and  so  is  also  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom 
God  hath  given  to  them  that  obey  Him." 

Now  there  is  no  break  in  this  reasoning,  nor  any 
possibility  of  forgery  or  mistake;  for  it  is  grounded 
on  experience,  and  is  ojDen  to  the  examination  of 
all  persons  willing  to  make  trial  of  that  faith  that  is 
challenged  in  all  rational  creatures,  and  in>variably 
produces  the  assurance  of  eternal  life.  "  And  this 
is  life  eternal,  that  they  might  know  Thee  the  only 
true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent." 

Nothing  less  than  this  can  be  the  perfection  of 
heavenly  and  earthly  science  united.  It  is  infinite, 
celestial.  Christian  evidence,  leaving  no  loophole  or 
excuse  for  unbehef ;  the  very  method  of  jjroof,  which 
God's  reason,  in  God's  Word  and  in  man's  mind  de- 
mands, as  the  ground  of  absolute  knowledge.  It  is 
the  Lord  of  all,  the  Author  of  Eternal  Salvation,  the 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    i^i 

Author  and  Finislier  of  Faith,  who  "begins  and  com- 
pletes in  Himself,  as  God  and  man,  this  science  for 
the  universe,  this  demonstration  of  all  power  in 
heaven  and  on  earth. 

This,  and  nothing  less,  is  the  infinitely  glorious  con- 
clusion of  the  72d  Psalm;  even  the  fullilment  of  that 
promised  celestial  and  eternal  glory,  wherein  "the 
jDrayers  of  David,  the  son  of  Jesse,  are  ended." 
"He  shall  dehver  the  needy  when  he  crieth.  He  shall 
redeem  their  souls.  Praj'er  also  shall  be  made  for 
Him  continually,  and  daily  shall  He  be  praised.  There 
shall  be  a  handful  of  com  in  the  earth  on  the  top  of 
the  mountains;  the  fruit  thereof  shall  shake  like  Leb- 
anon. He  shall  have  dominion  also  from  sea  to  sea, 
and  from  the  river  unto  the  ends  of  the  earth;  His 
name  shall  endure  forever;  His  name  shall  be  con- 
tinued as  long  as  the  sun :  and  men  shall  be  blessed 
in  Him.  All  nations  shall  call  Him  blessed.  And 
blessed  be  His  glorious  name  forever,  and  let  the 
whole  earth  be  filled  with  His  glory.  Amen  and 
amen." 


1^2     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 


XIX. 

THE  TEMPTATION  IN  THE  WILDERNESS  THE  FIRST 
EXPLANATORY  NARRATIVE  IN  THE  GOSPELS— ITS 
CONNECTION  WITH  THE  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  TRANS- 
FIGURATION, AND  THE  WALK  TO  EMMAUS— THEN 
THE  CULMINATING  NARRATIVE  OF  THE  CRUCIFIX- 
ION, OUT  OF  THE  SAME  DIVINE  NECESSITY— "  IT 
IS  WRITTEN." 

The  Temptation  is  tine  first  grand  self-demonstrating 
narrative  in  the  Goapels,  presenting  Christ,  acting  for 
us,  in  our  nature,  and  giving  the  normal  example, 
the  principles,  the  grammar  of  Hfe  and  the  germs 
of  motive  and  of  feeUng,  to  guide  and  inspire  us  in 
all  our  conflicts  with  evil,  and  the  Evil  One.  It  is  the 
method  for  our  inteUigence  and  heart.  As  Christ 
did  in  the  wilderness,  when  tempted  of  the  devil, 
so  must  we  do,  whose  whole  pilgrimage,  in  con- 
sequence of  sin  within  us,  is  that  of  a  temptation 
through  Hfe,  by  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil. 
But  having  a  present  God  to  appeal  to  as  our  refuge 
and  strength,  and  the  example  of  a  friend  and  Sa- 
viour who  was  in  all  points  temjoted  like  as  we 
are,  yet  without  sin,  the  outstanding  lessons  and 
example  in  this  narrative  are   found  in  Christ's  in- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    14J 

cessant  use  of  the  "Word  of  God,  as  His  only  au- 
thority and  weapon;  in  the  exercise  of  faith  in  God 
as  His  overmastering,  sustaining,  inspiring  principle 
and  vital  power. 

The  next  grand  narrative  is  that  of  the  walk  to 
Emmaus,  with  the  same  Scriptures  that  Christ  used 
for  Himself  against  Satan  in  the  temptation,  now 
disclosed  in  the  full  glory  and  majesty  of  their  sig- 
nificance and  purpose  in  regard  to  Himself  as  the 
Saviour  of  mankind,  and  for  the  complete  instruc- 
tion and  arming  of  believers  in  Him,  to  be  His 
witnesses  and  God's,  in  and  for  the  work  of  re- 
demption, in  the  preaching  of  the  Word,  in  the  pub- 
lication of  the  GosjDel,  in  the  hfting  up  of  Him  upon 
the  cross,  whom  the  Word  presents  for  our  salva- 
tion, and  who  has  given  us  to  know  that  if  He  be  so 
Hfted  up.  He  will  draw  all  men  unto  Himself.  Now 
if  our  strength  for  ourselves,  in  aU  our  personal  con- 
flicts, is  in  the  knowledge  and  use  of  God's  Word 
by  a  personal  faith,  equally  or  much  more  are  such 
knowledge  and  use  necessary,  and  certainly  with 
need  of  a  much  wider  and  more  fuUy  instructed 
comprehension  of  the  same,  in  our  work  in  and 
upon  the  world,  as  Christ's  agents  in  behalf  of  oth- 
ers, for  the  planting,  encouragement,  and  instruc- 
tion of  their  faith;   and   all  because.  It  is  written. 

Between  these  two  narratives,  there  came  the  vis- 


144     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

ion,  and  there  stands  the  account  of  the  Transfig- 
uration, which  is  a  double  example  of  Christ's  com- 
muning with  and  recalling  the  Old  Testament  anu 
His  Father's  prophets  in  it,  both  for  His  own  com- 
fort and  strength  advancing  to  His  sufferings  and 
death,  and  for  the  instruction  and  confirmation  of 
our  faith,  when  He  should  have  fulfilled  in  Himself 
all  things  testified  beforehand  in  Moses  and  the 
projDhets.  In  the  temptation  in  the  wUderness,  Satan 
appeared  to  Him,  and  projDosed  that  He  should  save 
His  own  life  from  suffering  and  death  by  miracles. 
In  the  Transfiguration,  Moses  and  Elias  appeared, 
and  spake  with  Him  of  His  decease,  which  He  should 
accomplish  at  Jerusalem.  It  was  Christ  communing 
with  the  dead  but  living  proj^hets  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, in  regard  to  His  own  dying  and  rising  and 
kingdom  of  glory,  even  his  inheritance  of  the  saints 
in  light,  the  jDurchase  of  His  sufferings  and  death.- 
Peter,  James,  and  John,  the  representatives  and  lead- 
ing spirits  of  those  who  were  to  be  the  living  prophets 
of  the  New  Testament,  were  alone  admitted  to  behold 
His  glory  and  hsten  to  that  conversation,  in  order 
that  they  might  be  the  better  prepared  to  bear  wit- 
ness and  to  preach.  Admitted  to  hear  the  thunder 
of  the  voice  of  God  from  heaven,  the  same  that  fell 
at  His  baptism ;  but  warned  that  they  should  submit 
even  this  majestic   utterance  to  the   Old   Testament 


God's  Timepiece  for  Maris  Eternity.     7^5 

inspiration ;  that  sui-er  word  of  proj)liecy,  according  to 
wliicli  all  i^rocedures  were  evolved,  As  it  is  written. 

The  reference  to  this  testimony  in  the  second  of 
Peter's  Epistles  is  in  this  view  very  wonderful,  as 
to  a  thing  well  known,  an  event  recorded,  full  of 
divine  glory,  and  indisputable,  and  yet  of  secondary 
importance  to  the  utterances  of  God  in  the  Old 
Testament  as  it  was  written.  "For  we  have  not  fol- 
lowed cunningly  devised  fables,  when  we  made  known 
unto  you  the  power  and  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  but  were  eye-witnesses  of  His  majest}'.  For 
he  received  from  God  the  Father  honor  and  glory, 
when  there  came  such  a  voice  to  Him  from  the  ex- 
cellent glory,  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I 
am  well  pleased.  And  this  voice,  which  came  fi-om 
heaven  we  heard,  when  we  were  with  Him  in  the 
holy  mount.  We  have  also  a  more  sure  ivord  of 
prophecy,  whereunto  ye  do  well  that  ye  take  heed, 
as  unto  a  light  that  shineth  in  a  dark  place,  until 
the  day  dawn,  and  the  day  star  arise  in  your  hearts. 
Knowing  this  first,  that  no  j)rophecy  of  the  Scripture 
is  of  any  private  Luterpretation.  For  the  j)i"0i3hecy 
came  not  in  old  time  by  the  will  of  man;  but  holy 
men  of  God  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy 
Ghost." 

Two  of  the  foremost  of  these  holy  men  of  God  were 
now  present  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration,  per- 


I/J.6     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

mitted  to  break  tbrougli  the  impassable  barrier  be- 
tween the  Eternal  World  and  this,  in  order  that  they 
might  renew  their  testimony,  direct  from  heaven,  to 
the  glory  of  that  Being,  tkrough  the  foreseen  efficacy 
of  whose  blood,  shed  for  the  remission  of  sins,  they 
had  ah'eady  enjoyed  a  thousand  years'  experience 
of  heaven.  They  appeared  with  Him  now  in  glory, 
and  spake  of  His  decease,  which  He  should  accomplish 
at  Jerusalem. 

It  was  a  re-personation  of  the  Word,  It  is  written, 
in  august  Hving  personages,  adoring  and  talking  with 
the  Word  Incarnate;  a  crystallization  to  the  spiritual 
and  physical  sense  of  the  beholders,  of  a  portion  of 
the  heavenly  unseen  world,  with  its  hving  glorious 
inhabitants,  and  the  themes  of  then:  absorbing  in- 
terest. If  there  had  been  any  doubt  or  questioning 
of  the  resurrection,  or  future  life,  of  dejDarted  hu- 
man beings,  as  Hving  on  in  another  world,  this 
would  take  all  that  doubt  away;  but  the  death 
and  rising  again  of  the  Lord  Jesus  could  not  be 
understood  by  that,  save  only  in  mysterious  predic- 
tion. And  therefore  Christ  sealed  in  them  the  vis- 
ion for  perfect  silence,  not  to  be  broken  even  to 
the  dearest  and  nearest  of  the  disciples,  till  His 
own  resurrection  had  been  seen  and  known.  "You 
have  seen  these  transfigured  beings  in  glory,  along  with 
Me,  as  really  living  beings  as  I  am.     They,  you  well 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    i^y 

know,  died,  and  have  not  been  seen  on  earth  for 
a  thousand  years.  You  have  heard  the  voice  of  My 
Father  in  heaven.  I,  whom  you  have  seen  and  known 
as  yet  only  hving,  but  to-day  transfigured,  am  My- 
self to  be  j)ut  to  death,  but  to  rise  from  the  dead,  the 
third  day,  from  the  grave  in  which  I  shall  be  laid 
among  you.  TeU  the  vision  to  no  man,  till  I  am 
rif^en  from  the  dead,  when  you  will  know  its  whole 
meaning  and  power,  and  can  relate  it,  along  with  the 
event  of  My  resurrection,  in  your  presentation  to  men 
of  My  glory." 

So  He  charged  them  that  they  should  tell  no  man 
what  things  they  had  seen,  till  the  Son  of  man  were 
risen  from  the  dead.  And  they  kejDt  that  saying  with 
themselves,  questioning  one  with  another  xohat  the  ris- 
ing from  the  dead  should  mean.  Peter,  James  and 
John  had  that  secret  subject  among  themselves,  all 
the  remaining  time  of  theu^  education  with  Christ, 
and  ever  and  anon  were  studying  it.  But  Christ,  to 
theii'  minds,  Christ,  the  Messiah,  Christ,  the  person 
of  Peter's  confession,  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  Living 
God,  was  always  living.  How  should  He  die  ?  How 
should  He  rise  again?  He  who  said  to  Martha,  I 
am  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life,  He  who  Himself 
called  Lazarus  from  his  grave,  hoAV  should  He  die  ? 
How  should  death  ever  have  any  power  over  Him? 

Because  He  had  power  to  lay  down  His  life,  and 


148     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

power  to  take  it  again.  Because  this  commandment 
He  had  received  from  the  Father,  and  thus  in  His  Fa- 
ther's Book  it  was  written  of  Him,  I  dehght  to  do  Thy 
will,  O  God.  It  must  be  fulfilled,  as  God  had  written, 
not  because  the  fulfilment  was  necessary,  and  must 
be  brought  about,  in  order  to  save  the  credit  of  the 
prediction,  but  because  it  was  God's  prediction,  and 
could  not  be  broken;  because  heaven  and  earth  might 
sooner  pass  away  than  one  jot  or  tittle  of  God's  Word 
be  unaccomplished.  And  because,  by  His  voluntary 
dying,  in  obedience  to  God's  will,  and  bearing  our 
sins  out  of  infinite  divine  compassion,  having  Him- 
self become  a  jDartaker  of  our  flesh  and  blood,  in 
order  that  He  might  do  this  in  body,  soul,  and  sj)irit 
in  our  nature,  He,  through  death,  destroyed  him 
that  had  the  power  of  death,  that  is  the  devil,  and 
delivered  the  life-time  subjects  of  the  devil's  bond- 
age. 

Ought  not  Christ  to  suffer  these  things,  and  to  enter 
into  His  glory  ?  The  first  thing  requisite  for  them  to 
know  was,  that  Christ  ought,  in  obedience  to  His  Fa- 
ther's Will,  and  because  It  was  written.  The  other 
eternal  reasons  they  should  see  and  know,  even  in 
their  knowledge  of  Christ's  own  glory,  by  experience 
and  particij)ation  of  the  same.  For  the  present  this 
must  suflfice — It  is  written. 

In  the  walk  to  Emmaus  the  receivers  and  repre- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     i/j.g 

sentatives  of  the  information  and  the  glory  were  not 
apostles,  not  of  the  twelve;  and  therefore  the  record 
possesses  an  importance,  as  disclosing  an  affluent  of 
the  great  river  of  inspu'ation  from  the  Lord  Jesus 
before  it  was  put  in  writing,  and  showing  whence  they 
derived  the  materials  and  the  illuminating  power  of 
their  testimony  who  spake  the  Gospel  as  from  the  lips 
of  the  Lord  Jesus,  as  He  Himself  gave  to  them  the  Word 
of  God  ivith  His  knowledge  of  it,  and  His  authoritaiive  in- 
terpretation. This  witness  is  for  us,  and  for  all  men 
directly,  not  through  what  is  called  the  Apostolate,  or 
any  apostohc  succession,  but  as  an  ojDen  reservoir, 
that  ive  knoio  to  have  been  set  open  bvfore  our  Lord's  As- 
cension. And  we  are  at  liberty  to  put  all  the  elements 
in  it,  which  we  can  discover  through  the  Gospels  or 
in  the  Epistles  to  have  been  drawn  at  any  time  by  our 
Lord  from  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  or  commun- 
icated concerning  Himself  by  after  inspiration. 

In  the  walk  to  Emmaus  we  are  ourselves  with 
Christ  as  our  teacher,  and  are  taken  by  Him  into 
the  Word  of  God  entering  with  Him  into  the 
depths,  unfathomable,  to  see  the  sunken  pillars  of 
God's  redemptive  architectxire,  and  how  the  new 
world  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness  must  rise  uj^on 
them  and  out  of  them,  and  how  every  builder  and 
every  behever  that  would  possess  the  infinite  honor 
and   happiness  of  being   a   co-worker   with   God   in 


1^0     Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

Chi-ist,  and  would  be  jDrepared  for  such  a  glorious 
ministry,  and  be  successful  in  it,  must  work  and  build 
ujDon  that  Word  as  it  is  written,  and  according  to  it,  and 
to  the  directions  of  Christ,  everywhere  pointing  to  the 
plan  divine,  and  giving  the  specifications.  Here  was 
Christ,  taking  some  of  the  master-builders  of  His 
kingdom  into  His  secret  studio,  and  unroUing  before 
them  His  plan  and  Grod's  plan,  ground  plan  and  up- 
per story,  in  the  Old  Testament  Scrijotures,  as  God 
took  Moses  up  into  the  Mount,  and  revealed  to  him 
and  made  him  understand  the  j^lan  and  si^ecifications 
of  the  Tabernacle,  and  said  to  him,  "  See  that  thou 
make  all  things  according  to  the  pattern  showed 
thee  in  the  Mount,"  so  also  in  the  same  manner  He 
instructed  David,  and  David  Solomon,  for  the  build- 
ing of  the  Temple.  See  Ex.  xxv.  40,  xxvi.  30,  and 
Num.  viii.  4,  compared  with  I  Chron.  xxviii.  11,  12, 19, 
and  Heb.  viii.  5. 

In  the  narrative  of  the  Crucifixion,  to  which  every 
preceding  path  travels,  and  without  which  the  Gospels 
would  be  vain,  and  our  faith  vain,  we  have  everything 
advancing  by  divine  foreknowledge  and  plan,  tran- 
spiring in  the  same  method,  by  reason  of  the  j^revious 
revelation,  now  coming  to  its  conclusion,  with  the 
same  divine  necessity.  As  it  is  written.  That  is  the 
one  thing  regarded.  There  is  the  same  invariable 
exaltatior  of  the  Word  in  its  written  exactitude,  as 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,     i^r 

the  Judge  and  Determiner  of  all  things.  But  we 
have  this  narrative  also  recorded  by  the  witnesses,  just 
exactly  as  its  scenery  passed  before  the  minds  of  the 
disciples,  still  veiled  and  darkened,  looking  on  in  as- 
tonishment and  despair,  only  one  person  admitted  to 
the  fuU  understanding  of  it,  and  that,  the  thief  upon 
THE  CROSS,  whose  faith  was  the  first  triumph  and  re- 
ward of  the  Redeemer's  sufferings. 

As  yet,  that  Christ  should  suffer  death  they  no 
more  knew  the  meaning  of,  than  that  He  should  rise 
again  from  the  dead;  for  with  that  rising  they  could 
as  yet  connect  httle  more  than  the  idea  or  belief  of 
continued  existence  in  another  world;  and  it  would 
necessarily  take  Chi'ist  away  from  this  world  as  the 
King  of  glory,  and  from  all  their  hopes  and  expecta- 
tions as  Hebrews,  of  a  glorious  empu-e  on  earth  under 
His  Kingship. 

They  knew  not  the  meaning  as  yet  of  any  part  of 
the  great  tragedy;  and  so  it  went  on,  and  so  the 
whole  is  related  as  to  them  its  events  were  developed, 
under  that  veil.  Every  step  in  the  history,  every  be- 
trayal of  the  victim,  every  insult,  every  agony,  the 
scenes  of  Gethsemane,  the  words  of  prayer,  the  bloody 
sweat,  the  desertion  of  the  disciples,  related  with  such 
inimitable  simpHcity  and  severity;  not  one  word  or 
mark  of  exaggeration  or  of  effort  at  display;  not  a 
shade  of  coloring  put  in  for  .effect,  but  just  the  hue 


1^2     God's  Thnepiece for  Mans  Eternity. 

of  living  truth,  circumstance  after  circumstance;  and 
the  admission,  so  freely  made,  that  all  this  was  done 
that  the  Scriptures  of  the  prophets  might  he  fulfilled,  but 
that  the  disciples  did  not  understand  it,  and  that 
there  was  an  inexorable  necessity  of  such  fulfilment,  by 
which  the  Son  of  God  Himself  was  bound.  "Think- 
est  thou  that  I  cannot  now  pray  to  My  Father,  and 
He  shaU  presently  give  Me  more  than  twelve  legions 
of  angels  ?  But  how  then  shall  the  Scriptures  be  ful- 
filled that  thus  it  must  be?"  It  is  written;  and  that 
is  My  divine  necessity,  even  the  written  Word  of  My 
Father,  and  that  Word  as  He  meant  it,  without  one 
attempt  to  vary  or  escape  its  meaning  or  its  conse- 
quences. 


XX. 

THINGS  TO  BE  NOTED  AS  ILLUSTRATED  IN  THE  TEMP- 
TATION—FIRST THE  OPENING  POSITION  OF  SATAN, 
AS  THE  ACCUSER  AND  ENEMY  OF  MANKIND— SEC- 
OND, THE  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  SATAN'S  METH- 
OD, AND  THAT  OF  MODERN  INFIDELITY— THIRD, 
OUR  LESSONS  FROM  HIS  EXAMPLE  AND  THAT  OF 
THE  SAVIOUR,   "THUS  SAITH  THE  LORD." 

We  now  carry  this  general  survey  back  to  our 
Lord's  history  of  the  Temj)tation  in  the  wilderness, 
on  our  behalf,  and  continuing  our  argument,  we  note 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity,     i^j 

fii'st,  that  the  very  first  temptation  of  Adam  and  Eve 
by  the  devil  was  of  doubt  as  to  God's  Word;  had  He 
given  any  word  at  all,  any  divine  revelation?  If 
He  had,  was  it  true  ?  Literally  true,  or  to  be  taken 
cum  grano  salts,  with  conjectures  and  asides,  accord- 
ing to  the  needs  of  our  self-seeking  intei'jDretation  ? 
He  may  have  issued  the  command;  but  as  to  the 
penalty — is  that  to  be  taken  hterally? 

By  no  means,  is  the  answer  of  the  Tempter.  There  is 
concealment  of  the  truth  under  it.  For  God  doth  know 
that  ye  shall  be  as  gods,  knowing  good  and  evil,  but 
not  as  demons  suffering  the  vengeance  of  eternal  fire. 

The  form  of  temptation  for  the  fall  of  the  second 
Adam  was  neither  of  concealment,  nor  denial,  nor  mis- 
interpretation of  the  Word,  but  the  very  contrary;  ambi- 
tious and  self-exalting  presumjition  in  the  application 
of  it;  self-seeking  as  the  right  rule  of  blessedness. 

Had  the  Son  of  God  really  come  ?  Was  this  He  ? 
Let  me  tr^-  His  own  behef  in  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures  as  the  Word  of  God.  Is  He  sincere  ?  Or  can 
He  be  tempted  to  put  those  Scriptures  to  use,  not  in 
His  own  sufferings,  but  for  His  own  ease  and  grandeur. 

The  Satan  of  the  temptation  is  himself  a  beHever 
in  God,  but  at  war  against  Him,  and  an  unbeliever  in 
the  reality  of  any  such  thing  as  true  piety,  disinter- 
ested love,  in  man.  He  is  the  accuser  of  mankind; 
he   would    fain    be    the   accuser   with    proof   against 


1^4-     Gods  Timepiece  for  Majis  Eternity. 

Christ.  If  he  can  succeed  in  moving  Him  one  hair'a 
breadth  from  His  integrity  as  the  servant  of  God,  to 
pat  self  in  any  way,  with  whatever  fair  pretence, 
above  God's  will,  or  stni  more,  by  pretended  con- 
formity with  that  will,  he  wUl  gain  the  whole  victory; 
and  even  after  all  the  manifestation  of  heaven  at 
John's  baptism  of  Christ,  he  will  be  able,  as  hell's 
prince  of  detectives,  to  convict  Christ  as  a  forger  and 
false  prophet;  a  sinner  against  God,  and  therefore  by 
no  possibility  a  Saviour  of  mankind. 

It  is  remarkable,  and  full  of  instruction,  that  the 
temptation  by  which  he  intended  to  expose  Christ 
as  a  forger  and  false  prophet,  consisted  in  this  cru- 
cial trial  of  His  character,  as  to  His  disinterested 
loyaUij  to  God  and  love  to  man.  Had  He  really  come 
on  earth,  as  the  Son  of  God,  to  bruise  the  ser- 
pent's head  by  dying  for  sinners?  He  hoped,  as 
in  his  torturing  work  upon  Job,  more  than  a  thou- 
sand years  before,  to  prove  that  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  a  self-denying  piety  on  earth,  but  that  ah 
seek  their  own  reward  in  pleasure  and  glory,  in  this 
world.  He  hoped,  and  attemj)ted,  to  turn  Him  aside 
from  a  supreme  regard  to  the  will  and  Word  of 
God  as  His  law,  and  from  an  unchangeable  sympa- 
tliy  with  God's  purposes,  and  submission  of  Hia 
own  to  God's  wiU;  preferring  self-indulgence  and 
power    to    the    cup    of    death,    which    the    Father 


Gods  Timepiece  f 01''  Maiis  Eternity.     755 

had  given  Him  to  driiik.  Aiid  the  temptation  being- 
addressed  to  Him  as  a  man,  and  not  as  God,  the 
superiority,  safety,  victory  of  Christ  consisted  not  in 
His  being  one  with  God,  but  entirely,  intensely,  in- 
finitely, unchangeably,  in  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  con- 
secrated to  God's  will,  as  made  known  to  men  in  God's 
Word;  having  no  other  will  but  God's,  and  no  pos- 
sibility of  ever  preferring  His  own  will  in  anything 
whatever,  even  for  an  instant.  It  was  not  incarnate 
God-ship  merely,  but  human  nature  and  divine  in 
one  perfect,  consistent,  immaculate  manifestation  of 
character;  the  God-man  indeed,  but  the  man  God- 
like, God-perfect,  absolutely,  unchangeably,  infinitely 
holy,  as  man;  and  though  in  all  points  tempted  like 
as  we  are,  as  man,  yet  vsdthout  sin;  as  man,  without 
one  breath  or  shade  of  human  self-seeking.  As  man, 
our  infinitely  perfect  example;  as  God-man,  our  Sa- 
viour, God  in  Christ  reconcihng  the  world  unto  Him- 
self, having  borne  our  sins  in  His  own  death,  at  God's 
will;  the  iniquity  of  us  aU  being  laid  upon  Him,  as 
our  propitiation,  our  redemption,  through  His  blood. 

Consider,  in  his  use  of  Scripture,  the  unexpected 
testimony  of  the  devil  as  to  what  is  written  in  the 
Old  Testament  being  the  true  and  undisputed  Word 
of  God.  Any  evidence  extorted  from  a  criminal, 
which  criminates  himself,  is  of  all  things  most  un- 
deniable.    It    is    not,    however,    extorted,    for    Satan 


1^6     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

gives  it  willingly,  and  in  the  most  natural  way,  ad- 
mitting particular  texts  of  the  Old  Te^^tament,  drawn 
especially  from  Deuteronomy,  as  the  Word  of  God. 
He  dares  not  now,  as  in  the  method  of  the  devil 
with  Eve,  even  ask  the  question.  Yea,  hath  God  midf 
The  whole  Volume  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  the 
Oracles  of  God,  from  Genesis  to  Malachi,  had  be- 
come, by  the  Will  and  Providence  of  God,  a  pos- 
session and  prepossession  of  the  whole  Hebrew  people ; 
and  the  known  designation  of  that  Sacred  Volume, 
as  God's  own.  The  Scriptures,  was  as  limited  and 
definite  and  certain  in  its  meaning,  as  any  algebraic 
sign  is  to-day  to  the  mathematician.  The  devil  no 
more  thought  of  disputing  the  Hebrew  Canon,  as 
if  it  were  unknown  or  mistaken,  than  the  formula 
that  two  and  two  make  four.  It  is  written  is  ac- 
cepted by  the  devil  himself,  as  an  unquestionable 
axiom  and  standpoint  of  perfect  reasoning  from 
God  to  man.  He  admits  the  authority  of  all  that 
our  Lord  had  quoted  from  Moses,  as  divine,  and 
as  meant  for  all  mankind.  And  most  remarkable 
it  is,  that  our  Lord's  three  quotations  fi'om  God's 
Word,  in  this  jjrimal  and  all  determining  conflict 
and  conquest,  were  only  from  Deuteronomy;  the  devil 
accepting  the  same,  and  not  the  shadow  of  a  sus- 
picion or  contradiction  permitted  to  fall  upon  the 
book,  or  the  texts,  or  Moses  as  the  writer. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity.     75/ 

There  is  a  vast  difference  between  Satan's  method 
in  this  conflict  against  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  that  of 
modern  infidehty  against  both  inspiration  and  Chris- 
tianity. Satan  not  only  did  not  attempt  a  denial  of 
the  supernatural,  as  impossible,  or  of  verbal  inspira- 
tion as  incredible,  but  availed  himself  of  the  truth  and 
certainty  of  both;  himself,  following  Christ's  method 
and  example,  quoted  the  91st  Psalm,  and  proposed  that 
Jesus,  if  He  were  the  Son  of  God,  should  make  experi- 
ment of  its  inspiration  accordingly,  and  justify,  in  the 
sight  of  the  whole  world,  His  own  confidence  in  God's 
protection  by  it.  He  attempted  neither  evasion  nor 
denial,  either  of  Moses'  inspii'ation  or  authority;  but,  first 
opening  his  batteries  of  temptation  on  the  ground  that 
a  voice  from  heaven  had  declared  Jesus  to  be  the  Son  of 
God,  he  continues  the  conflict  on  the  admitted  grounds 
of  divine  inspiration,  and  receives  our  Lord's  appeal 
to  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  without  the  least 
question  that  they  are  the  Word  of  God.  He  does  not 
even  interpose  that  most  common  form  and  apology 
of  unbelief,  that  even  if  insjjiration  be  admitted,  it  is 
in  so  general  a  sense,  that  you  cannot  assert  of  any 
particular  phrase  or  sentence  that  that  is  the  Word 
of  God;  for  the  words  themselves  are  not  insjDu-ed, 
and  at  best  it  is  only  a  human  liistoric  record  of 
things  supposed  to  have  happened. 

This   is  an   easy  refuge   for  any  man  against  the 


ij8     God's  Timepiece  for  Alans  Eternity. 

divine  authority  of  any  and  every  i)art  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, which  he  does  not  rehsh,  and  wishes  to  reject. 
tt  is  a  shield  against  all  the  arrows  of  divine  truth, 
wven  as,  on  the  other  hand,  a  true  faith  in  God's 
Word,  and  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  presented 
there,  is  a  shield  from  the  armory  of  heaven  against 
all  the  fiery  darts  of  the  Wicked  One. 

They  who  deny  a  plenary  inspiration  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  they  whose  theology  accepts  such  denial, 
and  proceeds  upon  it,  cut  themselves  off  from  all 
power  in  the  Word  of  God,  from  all  ability  to  stand 
forth  in  His  name,  under  His  authority,  proclaiming, 
Thuii  mith  the  Lord. 

But  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  in  His  ministry,  un- 
questionably affirms  a  verbal  inspiration,  stands  iipon 
every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of 
God.  Every  word,  for,  indeed,  if  not,  then  a  new 
revelation  would  be  needed,  to  teach  us  which  were, 
and  which  were  not  the  very  words  of  God  in  this 
volume;  for  those  that  are  not  would  surely  be 
merely  human,  fallible,  of  no  authority.  But  the 
Lord  Jesus  founded  His  kingdom  on  no  such  quick- 
sands, nor  ever  sent  His  disciples  to  any  such  school 
of  uncertain  theology,  but  gave  them  the  very  words 
of  God  wherewith  to  grapple,  and  whereby  to  hold, 
a  world  lying  in  wickedness. 

Nor  did  Satan  himself  take  any  other  ground.     He 


God's  Timepiece-for  Man's  Eternity,     i^g 

accepted  our  Lord's  appeal,  and  stood  upon  the  same 
theory  of  such  an  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  as 
makes  all  thai  is  written  in  them  the  very  Word  of  God. 
That  is  true  faith  in  God,  and  loyalty  to  Him,  which 
is  faith  in  God's  Word,  and  abides  by  it,  and  acts 
accordingly.  And  it  was  by  such  use  of  God's  Word, 
that  our  Lord  put  Satan  to  flight,  and  not  by  any 
array  of  angels  or  any  exercise  of  supernatural  power, 
but  by  doing  what  He  knew  to  be  the  will  of  God,  as 
it  was  xvrilten;  by  drinking  the  cup  which  the  Father 
had  given  Him.  Thus  was  cast  out  the  great  dragon, 
"that  old  serpent  called  the  devil,  and  Satan,  which 
deceiveth  the  whole  world."  Our  blessed  Lord  might 
have  launched  at  him  a  single  thunderbolt,  and  trans- 
fixed him  in  that  bottomless  pit.  from  whence,  by  mys- 
terious permission  he  had  broken  loose,  and  was  now 
ranging  up  and  down  Judea,  seeking  whom  he  might 
devour.  He  might  have  set  Michael  the  Archangel 
again  upon  him,  to  rebuke  him,  or  to  remand  him, 
under  chains  of  darkness  to  the  judgment  of  the 
Great  Day.  But  He  simply  smote  him  with  the  sword 
of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  Word  of  God,  and  that  was 
enough.  He  used  no  other  argument,  no  other  com- 
pulsion than  that  of  divine  truth,  in  the  simplest,  plain- 
est announcement  of  the  will  of  God.  He  gave  no 
other  reason  but  this,  that  God  says  it,  and  that  settled 
the  matter.     Even  so  His  disciples  were  to  overcome 


i6o     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

the  Accuser,  the  Diabolos  of  mankind,  "  by  the  blood 
of  the  Lamb,  and  by  the  word  of  their  testimony"; 
loving  not  their  lives  unto  the  death. 

It  was  an  example  for  us  all,  for  the  ministry,  for 
the  churches,  in  the  conflict  against  sin  and  Satan. 
"We  must  throw  ourselves  on  God's  Word,  and  use 
it,  and  a2D23ly  it,  not  as  the  ivord  of  man,  but  as  it  is  in 
truth,  the  very  Word  of  God  only.  We  are  not  to  be 
afraid  of  it,  nor  to  play  at  blind-man's  buff  with  it; 
(see  II  Cor.  iv.  4),  we  are  not  to  doubt  it,  we  are  not 
to  withhold  it,  nor  conceal  it,  we  are  neither  to  suffer 
its  perversion,  nor  to  thrust  it  as  a  sword  into  the 
scabbard,  instead  of  into  men's  hearts  and  iniquities, 
but  we  are  to  draw  it  forth  and  smite  with  it  on 
every  side.  Neither  man's  expediency  nor  permission 
is  to  be  the  rule,  but  only  God's  Word.  Thy  Word 
have  I  hid  in  mine  heart  that  I  might  not  sin  against  Thee. 
But  again,  "  I  have  not  hid  Thy  righteousness  within  my 
heart,  I  have  preached  righteousness  in.  the  great  con- 
gregation. I  have  not  refrained  my  hps,  O  Lord, 
•Thou  knowest.  I  have  declared  Thy  faithfulness  and 
Thy  salvation.  I  have  not  concealed  Thy  loving  kind- 
ness and  Thy  truth." — Ps.  xl.  10. 

No  emergency  could  have  happened,  no  mischiev- 
ous contingency  been  brought  about  by  Satan,  to 
which  our  blessed  Lord  would  not  have  instantly 
applied  some  pertinent  and  commanding  passage  or 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     i6i 

example.  "  For  the  Word  of  Grod  is  quick  and  pow- 
erful, and  sharjDer  tlian  any  two-edged  sword,"  and 
illimitable  and  eternal  in  its  search  and  application, 
"piercing  even  to  the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and 
spirit,  and  of  the  joints  and  marrow,  and  is  a  dis- 
cerner  of  the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart." 
Our  Lord  needed  no  other  library,  no  other  weapon, 
no  other  education;  neither  needs  any  Christian,  for 
that  is  all  in  all. 


XXI. 

THE  CHARACTERISTICS  AND  LIMITATIONS  OF  INSPI- 
RATION, AS  THUS  SETTLED  BY  OUR  LORD  — ITS 
DEFINITIONS  FROM  GENESIS  TO  THE  APOCALYPSE, 
THE  SAME— THE  AMOUNT  OF  CHRIST'S  TESTIMONY 
ON  THE  LOWEST  COMPUTATION— 'CHRIST'S  OWN 
VERACITY  INVOLVED  AS  THE  WITNESS  FOR  GOD- 
STEPS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  TEMPTATION 
—THE  FINAL  DEMONSTRATION  WROUGHT  OUT 
BY  IT. 

If  there  be  inspiration  at  all,  it  is  in  this  volume 
called  by  Christ,  The  Scriptures;  and  the  volume 
being  of  many  ages,  the  inspiration  is  one  and  the 
same  in  all,  and  is  proved  by  its  own  signs  and  seals. 
If  a  river  runs  under  ground,  but  reappears  after  a 
great  distance,  you  may  demonstrate  its  identity,  by 
its  quahties,  its  fishes,  the  very  mud  that  it  carries  and 


i62     God's  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity. 


deposits;  and  if  it  disappears  again  for  a  season  you 
may  know  it  when  it  again  rises  to  the  hght.  It 
cannot  be  salt  water  in  one  place  and  fresh  in  another. 

The  volume  must  be  one,  known  in  all  its  parts 
by  the  presence  of  the  same  inspiration.  "  Tlixj  Word 
is  true  from  the  beginning,  and  every  one  of  thy  righteous 
judgments  endureth  forever."  If  the  Redeemer  of  men 
says,  "  In  the  volume  of  The  Book  it  is  written  of  Me,"  and 
we  know  the  parts  of  that  volume  that  were  in  it 
when  the  Redeemer  referred  to  it,  we  know  that  all 
those  parts  were  there  by  the  same  infaUible  inspiration. 

By  what  language,  in  what  terms,  is  this  inspiration 
intimated,  in  the  volume  itself  from  which  the  Re- 
deemer quoted?  The  following  instances  are  drawn 
from  the  Old  Testament,  to  which  Christ  always  re- 
ferred as  the  only  divine  authority  given  among  men. 
No  reliance  can  be  placed  upon  language,  if  the  words 
in  which  God  conveys  His  own  thoughts,  and  sets 
forth  the  law  of  ati  eternal  salvation,  are  not  inspired. 

These  testimonies  are  from  Genesis  and  Deuter- 
onomy down  to  Isaiah,  Daniel,  Malachi, — the  whole 
collection  of  the  Scriptures  known  in  Christ's  time  as 
the  Law,  the  Prophets,  and  the  Psalms;  no  other 
inspired  Scriptures  existing  in  the  world.  Christ's 
integrity  in  quoting  one  authenticates  all. 

"  He  that  made  them  at  the  beginning  said."  "  God 
commanded,  saying."     "By  every  word  that  proceed- 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    i6j 

etli  out  of  the  mouth  of  G-od  shall  man  live."  "  Ke- 
member  ye  the  law,  which  I  commanded  in  Horeb." 
"Every  Word  of  God  is  jDure;  He  is  a  shield  unto 
them  that  put  their  trust  in  Him."  "  Add  thou  not 
unto  His  words,  lest  He  reprove  thee,  and  thou  be 
found  a  liar."  "The  Law  of  the  Lord  is  perfect, 
converting  the  soul;  the  testimony  of  the  Lord  is 
sure,  making  wise  the  simple,  the  statutes  of  the 
Lord  are  right,  rejoicing  the  heart;  the  command- 
ment of  the  Lord  is  pure,  enlightening  the  eyes." 
"The  "Words  of  the  Lord  are  pure  words  as  silver 
tried  in  a  furnace  of  earth,  purified  seven  times." 
"As  for  God,  His  way  is  perfect;  the  Word  of  the 
Lord  is  tried;  He  is  a  buckler  to  aU  those  who  trust 
in  Him."  "Ye  shall  not  add  unto  the  Word  which 
I  command  you,  neither  shall  ye  diminish  aught 
from  it,  that  ye  may  keep  the  commandments  of 
the  Lord  your  God."  "Whatsoever  thing  I  com- 
mand you,  observe  to  do  it;  thou  shalt  not  add 
thereto,  nor  dimiaish  from  it."  "To  the  Law  and 
to  the  testimony!  If  men  speak  not  according  to 
this  Word,  it  is  because  there  is  no  light  in  them." 
"  My  Spu-it  which  is  uj)on  thee,  and  My  words  which 
I  have  put  in  thy  mouth  shall  not  depart  out  of  thy 
mouth,  nor  out  of  the  mouth  of  thy  seed,  nor  out 
of  the  mouth  of  thy  seed's  seed,  saith  the  Lord,  from 
henceforth  and  forever." 


i6^     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

Now  the  assurance  of  this  testimony  is  in  the  words 
of  the  Lord  Jesus,  affirming  nothing  less  than  the 
authority  of  a  verbal  insj^iration  in  the  Old  Testa- 
iflent  Scriptures,  as  binding  upon  the  Son  of  God 
Himself.  Is  the  testimony  honest?  Is  it  true? 
Whatever  latitude,  under  the  pressure  of  things 
not  yet  by  us  understood,  difficulties  not  explained, 
perhaj)s  as  yet  inexphcable,  we  may  be  comj)eUed 
to  admit  in  our  definitions,  or  in  our  speculations 
concerning  the  requisite  characteristics  of  an  infal- 
lible divine  insiDu-ation,  Qiene  affirynations.  in  regard  to 
the  Hebrew  Scriptui^es  as  the  Word  of  God,  are  Christ's 
Words,  and  His  character  is  staked  upon  them.  Are 
they  honest,  unexaggerated,  to  be  received  in  the 
length  and  breadth  of  their  fair  meaning? 

Let  us  see.  On  the  lowest  computation  of  infi- 
dehty,  the  testimony  is  that  of  a  good  man.  The 
very  scoffers  at  a  divine  revelation  admit  the  good- 
ness, the  honesty,  the  unquestionable  integrity,  in 
the  perfect  character  of  Christ.  He  is  an  unim- 
peachable witness.  They  who  reject  every  other 
part  of  divine  revelation  sometimes  assure  us  that 
they  receive  without  hesitation  the  words  of  Jesus 
as  true.  They  admit  that  Christ  was  goodness  in- 
carnate, truth  and  love  without  mixtvire  and  with- 
out deception.  But  here  is  the  testimony  of  such 
a  Being,  the  personification   and   examj)le   of  right- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Etc7^nity.     i6^ 


eousness  and  goodness  to  the  race;  His  testimony 
as  to  His  own  rule  of  life  and  conduct,  as  to  the  in- 
fallible perfection  of  that  rule,  and  as  to  its  supreme 
and  unquestioned  authority  over  all  mankind.  An  un- 
hesitating regard  to  it,  and  obedience  of  it,  are  pre- 
sented as  the  principle  of  His  own  character,  the 
inflexible  determination  of  His  conduct  in  all  things; 
and  He  declares  that  what  it  is  for  Him  it  must  be 
for  aU  men,  their  sole  and  authoritative  rule. 

Now  if  this  testimony  is  not  true,  those  Scriptures 
are  not  true,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  knew  it;  and  we 
have  this  acknowledged  trustworthy  and  good  Being, 
the  admitted  personification  and  example  of  aU  good- 
ness, basing  His  whole  life  upon  a  known  lie;  setting 
out  in  His  pubhc  ministry  of  self-denying  and  suf- 
fering benevolence  vsdth  the  proclamation  of  an  enor- 
mous falsehood  as  the  foundation  of  it,  and  a  com- 
pidsion  in  it,  and  endeavoring  to  impose  the  same 
falsehood  upon  the  whole  human  race. 

But  this  huge,  vast  swindle   is  inconsistent  with 
the  lowest  supposition  of  any  goodness  or  honesty 
whatever  in  the  Being  who,  under  such  solemn  cir 
cumstances,  on  such  a  stupendous  theatre,  pubHshes 
this  testimony. 

The  Old  Testament  Scriptures  must  therefore  be 
received  as  the  perfect  Word  of  God,  or  this  witness, 
whose  words  are  claimed  above  all  other  testimony 


i66     God's  Timepiece  for  Maits  Eternity. 

on  earth  as  beiug  sincere  and  true,  and  whom  all 
men  acknowledge  to  be  the  most  perfect  example 
of  purity  and  truth,  is  infinitely  deceitful  and  wicked, 
the  very  Alpha  and  Omega  of  falsehood;  imposing, 
under  the  guise  and  influence  of  assumed  goodness 
the  greatest  of  all  possible  forgeries,  an  unins23ired, 
imperfect,  human  production,  as  the  authoritative 
revelation  of  Jehovah  for  all  creatures. 

We  are  shut  up  to  this  dilemma.  Either  this  book, 
these  written  revelations,  to  which  God  in  Christ  re- 
fers mankind,  are  the  Words  of  God,  and  we  are 
bound  to  receive  and  obey  them  as  such,  or  Christ 
Jesus,  the  admitted  personification  and  reahty  of 
truth  and  love,  on  whose  testimony  this  fact  of  di- 
vine inspiration  stands,  is  a  false  witness,  a  person 
of  incontestable  and  immeasurable  wickedness. 

This  wondrovis  Being,  the  light  of  life,  the  Hght 
of  the  world,  the  incarnation  of  love  and  mercy,  who 
went  about  doing  good,  who  could  stand  amidst  ma- 
Hgnant  enemies,  and  say,  with  His  life  and  character 
as  transparent  in  their  view  as  the  air  of  their  own 
landscape,  "  Which  of  you  convinceth  Me  of  sin  ?  " — this 
Being,  in  the  admiration  and  eulogy  of  ^ whose  moral 
loveliness  and  gloiy,  with  the  transcendent  beauty 
and  grandeur  of  His  life  and  death,  the  genius  of 
unbehevers  themselves  has  been  exalted  and  em- 
ployed, is  the   greatest   of   deceivers,   and   the   light 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     i6j 

that  was  in  Him  was  darkness,  if  the  Old  Testament 
ScrijDtm'es,  to  which  He  apphed  the  comprehensive 
designation  of  "all  that  is  written  in  Moses  and 
the  Prophets  and  the  Psalms,"  were  not  the  di- 
vinely inspu-ed  revelations  of  His  Father. 

Christ  was  predicted  in  the  Scriptures  in  various 
ways  as  the  Sun  of  Eighteousness,  the  Light  to 
hghten  the  Gentiles,  and  the  glory  of  His  people 
Israel.  He  was  to  be  the  teacher  and  interpreter 
of  God's  Word,  and  the  exemplar,  the  diviae  model 
of  obedience  to  it,  and  of  all  the  divitie  perfections 
described  m  it.  And  when  He  came.  He  was  such 
a  Being,  fulfilling  aU  these  promised  characteristics 
in  Himself,  and  manifesting  the  divine  glory.  A 
Being,  whose  words  are  as  suns,  mountains  of  Hght, 
words  that  are  spiritual  creators,  chronometers,  ar- 
tesian wells,  living  principles  for  iafaUible  guidance, 
charts  in  unknown  stormy  seas,  safety  lamps  for  la- 
borers in  mines  and  labyrinths  of  sin  and  of  death. 
He  could  stand  on  the  throne  of  God  and  say  in 
His  name,  "Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but 
My  words  shall  not  jDass  away."  They  shall  shine, 
when  the  Pleiades  and  the  North  Star  are  extin- 
guished. They  shall  light  your  way  thi-ough  death 
and  eternity.  "I  am  the  Light  of  the  world.  He 
that  followeth  Me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but 
shall  have  the  light  of  life." 


i68     GocTs  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity. 

And  all  His  arrangements  and  institutions  on  earth, 
all  the  forms  ia  which  He  wielded  infinite  power,  and 
crystallized  infinite  wisdom  in  organizations  for  man's 
good,  were  ia  the  same  spirit  of  the  Father's  aU-lov- 
ing  will  and  Word,  as  Hia  will.  The  Sabbath  was 
made  for  man  in  love,  and  therefore  He,  the  Son 
of  man  the  Savioui",  was  Lord  of  it,  in  redeeminsr 
love;  and  hath  all  God's  authority  over  it,  to  make  it 
perpetually  His  own  day  of  love  and  worship,  to  put 
into  the  heart  of  it  His  dying  love.  His  sufferings, 
death,  resm-rection,  to  give  to  all  mankind  the  Hght  of 
life  in  it,  as  an  inahenable  heritage  and  inseparable 
fixture  of  life-giving  truth;  a  Sabbath  which  should  be 
the  gift  of  God  to  the  whole  world,  and  the  glory 
of  the  Word  in  preaching  Christ  crucified,  for  the 
chief  of  sinners;  so  to  make  it  man's  refuge  and  rest 
fi'om  toil  and  temptation,  letting  down  by  it  the  air 
of  heaven  over  every  man's  homestead,  in  which  the 
household  plants  may  grow,  and  no  man  or  state,  or 
human  authority  shall  take  away  its  holy  freedom,  or 
drive  their  trains  of  traffic  and  amusement  over  it. 

The  Sabbath  and  the  Saviour  are  alike  from  God 
for  man,  to  make  men  partakers  of  God's  holiness 
and  happiness  and  glory;  to  save  them  from  them- 
selves, and  from  the  desjDotism  of  Satan,  and  from 
the  legions  of  sins,  and  temptations  to  unbounded 
irrehgion  and  sensual  indulgence,  which,  under  the 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    i6g 

pretence    of   a   progressive    scientific    socialism,    are 
whirling  society  to  perdition. 

The  Sabbath  is  Chi-ist's  own  Day  for  heaven's 
gifts  unto  men,  to  fit  men  for  heaven,  by  mak- 
ing them  partakers  and  possessors  of  heaven's 
blessedness  on  earth.  It  is  not  an  exaction,  or  a 
tax  from  God  upon  humanity,  or  a  robbery,  or  im- 
position of  spiritual  bondage,  but  a  jubilee  of  free- 
dom for  Satan's-  bond-slaves;  a  redemption  of  our 
time,  our  days,  oui*  weeks,  for  ourselves  and  our 
own  mercies,  because  we  are  so  depraved,  so  turned 
away  from  God,  and  in  subjection  to  appetite  and 
passion,  that  we  are  neither  willing  nor  able  to 
take  care  for  ourselves  of  our  divine  interest  and 
welfare. 


XXII. 

THE  FINAL  DEMONSTRATION  OF  THE  CROSS,  AND  ITS 
PRACTICAL  POWER— THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  CHRIST'S 
OMNIPOTENCE  BY  HIS  DIVINE  NATURE— HIS  WORK 
AS  APPOINTED  BY  GOD'S  WORD— THE  BLESSEDNESS 
OF  A  PARTICIPATION  IN  HIS  SUFFERINGS. 

"I  AM  the  Good  Shej)herd:  the  Good  Shepherd  giv- 
eth  His  life  for  the  sheep.  Therefore  doth  My  Father 
love  Me,  because  I  lay  down  My  Ufe  that  I  might  take 


lyo     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

it  again.  This  commandment  have  I  received  of  My 
Father."— John  x.  18. 

And  now  for  the  last  divine,  unassailable  proof  of 
the  eternal  truth  and  life-giving  power  of  these  Scrip- 
tures, through  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus,  for  the 
new  creation  of  our  being  in  God's  hohness!  Even 
so,  we  hasten  to  the  Cross; — through  the  storm  of 
hell  in  the  malice  of  men  and  devils,  hurrying  Jesus 
through  mockeries,  cruelties,  jeers,  blasphemies,  tor- 
tures, to  the  last  tragedy.  And  in  all  that  high- 
way of  sacrifice  and  suffering,  agony  and  endur- 
ance, the  tempting  work  of  Satan  is  terrific  though 
unseen;  and  Christ  Himself  at  every  step  is  in 
the  dreadful  conflict  treading  the  wine-press  alone, 
and  of  the  people  none  with  Him.  But  He  shields 
His  own,  though  they  reject  and  desert  Him.  How 
wonderfully,  at  the  gleam  of  the  sword  of  the  Spirit 
in  the  blows  of  the  conflict,  the  central,  aU-govern- 
ing  and  absorbing  truths  of  eternity  and  salvation 
flash  forth  as  streams  of  fire  within  and  aroimd  the 
soul. 

And  the  intensest  and  most  blessed  significance 
of  aU,  for  us,  the  infinitely  blessed  opportunity  of 
being  made  like  Christ,  possessors  of  His  Spirit, 
sons  and  heii's  of  God  with  Him,  and  even  partak- 
ers of  His  sufferings,  and  of  His  absolute  inability 
to  do  anything  or  desu'e  anything  contrary  to  God's 


God's  Twiepiece for  Mans  Eternity.     lyi 

Word  and  will!  That  is  infinite  perfection,  that  is 
eternal  Ufe,  that  the  being  filled  with  all  the  fulness 
of  God.  Glorify  God  is  the  rule  of  heaven,  and  of 
love,  and  of  all  good  beings.  Glorify,  and  enjoy  self, 
save  thyself,  is  the  rule  of  death  and  heU,  and  of  the 
carnal  mind,  at  enmity  against  God. 

"If  thou  be  the  Christ,  the  Anointed  of  God,  the 
King  of  Israel,  come  down  from  the  Cross,  and  save 
Thyself."  The  blasphemers  by  classes  are  set  down  in 
the  gospels,  scofiing  and  cursing.  The  people,  and  the 
rulers  with  them,  derided  Him,  saying,  He  saved  oth- 
ers, let  Him  save  Himself,  if  He  be  Christ  the  chosen 
of  God.  The  soldiers  also  mocked  Him,  If  Thou  be 
the  King  of  the  Jews,  Save  Thyself.  And  one  of  the 
malefactors  railed  on  Him,  saying.  If  thou  be  the 
Christ,  Save  Thyself  and  us.  The  chief  priests  with 
the  Scribes  and  elders  said.  He  saved  others;  Him- 
self He  cannot  save.  "  If  He  be  the  King  of  Israel 
let  Him  now  come  down  from  the  Cross,  and  we  wiU 
believe  Him.  He  trusted  in  God;  let  Him  deliver 
Him  now,  if  He  will  have  Him;  for  He  said,  I  am 
the  Son  of  God."  Thus  were  these  accusations  and 
taunts  repeated  at  successive  intervals,  and  shot  forth 
by  all  classes,  as  fiery  darts,  railing  iij)on  railing,  blas- 
phemy uj)on  blasphemy,  against  God  and  His  anoint- 
ed, even  as  predicted  in  the  prophetic  2d  Psalm. 

It  was  like  the  roU  of  musketry  from  regiment  after 


1^2     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

regiment,  battalion  succeeding  battalion,  with  the 
boom  of  fresh  parks  of  artillery,  stationed  at  aU 
points  in  command  of  the  field  of  battle! 

And  the  central  object  of  attack  and  conquest,  a 
Cross,  with  a  dying  Man  nailed  upon  it,  between  two 
thieves;  but  over  the  cross,  over  His  own  head,  the 
reality,  engraved  of  God,  the  truth,  for  the  assertion 
and  fidelity  of  which  He  was  dying;  the  inscription, 
meant  by  the  Jews  as  an  accusation,  but  written  by 
Pilate  under  divine  constraint,  the  Messiah's  Kingly 
Diadem  of  suffering  and  glory, — This  is  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth, the  King  of  the  Jews ! 

"Would  the  blasphemies  and  taunts  move  Him,  who 
had  foreseen  them  all?  How  terrific  had  been  the 
spectacle,  how  fuU  of  horror  and  darkness  for  the  uni- 
verse, had  the  Son  of  God  stepped  down  from  the 
Cross,  and  assumed  the  Crown,  saving  HimseK  from 
that  death,  which  He  came  into  the  world  to  endure 
that  He  might  save  others ! 

Could  the  instigator  of  these  blasphemies  have  im- 
agined that  they  would  succeed?  There  must  have 
been  some  such  supposition  of  a  possibility,  even  as 
in  the  wilderness.  If  Thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  it  is 
God's  wiU  that  Thou  shouldst  mxie  Thyself^  and  all 
men  will  adore  Thee. 

Save  Thyself!  That  is  supreme,  self-ehosen  law, 
for  fallen  humanity !     That  was  the  intended  sting  of 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     lyj 

all  these  darts;  the  venom  of  the  poison  of  the  Tempt- 
er was  in  them  all  in  that  suggestion,  as  at  the  first. 
When  Satan  put  it  into  the  heart  of  Judas  to  betray 
Christ,  perhaps  his  success  with  the  traitor  was  owing 
to  that  suggested  hope  of  the  devil,  that  Christ  might 
yet  be  persuaded  to  draw  back  from  death,  might  not 
suffer  Himself  to  be  given  up  to  the  will  of  His  cru- 
cifiers,  and  thus,  as  Satan  intended.  He  would  demon- 
strate Himself  a  selfish  impostor,  by  setting  His  own 
salvation  before  the  promise  and  the  will  of  God. 

Save  Thyself!  That  was  the  suggestion  and  the 
hope  conveyed  by  Peter's  word  at  the  beginning,  and 
attempted  violence  at  the  close,  which  was  but  an  im- 
itation of  the  work  of  the  Tempter  in  the  wilderness, 
Save  ThyseK.  Then  said  Jesus  -unto  him,  "  Put  up 
again  thy  sword  into  his  place :  for  all  they  that  take 
the  sword  shall  perish  with  the  sword.  Thinkest  thou 
that  I  cannot  now  pray  to  My  Father,  and  He  shall 
presently  give  Me  more  than  twelve  legions  of  angels  ? 
But  how  then  shall  the  Scriptiu'es  be  fulfilled,  that 
thus  it  must  be  ?  " 

And  now  comes  the  chmax  of  all  the  proofs  thus 
far  of  the  sinlessness  of  Jesus,  and  His  infinite  spot- 
less sujDeriority  to  all  mankind,  in  the  actual  annihila- 
tion of  self  at  the  will  of  God,  even  when  He  might, 
had  He  chosen,  by  prayer  to  God,  have  done  other- 
wise.    For  when,  by  this  answer  to  Peter,  and  this  re- 


7;Y     God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity. 


fusal  of  all  help  from  heaven  and  earth,  it  was  manifest 
that  the  Lord  Jesus  was  really  resolved  to  carjy  the 
Scriptures  of  the  Prophets  into  ^  literal  fulfilment  of 
the  Father's  word  and  sword  against  Himself,  then  all 
the  disciples  forsook  Him,  and  fled. 

But  Peter  followed  Him  afar  off,  unto  the  high 
priest's  palace,  and  went  in,  and  sat  with  the  servants, 
to  see  the  end.  It  was  as  if  he  had  said  within  him- 
self, I  will  not,  even  yet,  give  up  all  hope;  but  if  He 
does  permit  Himself  to  be  condemned,  I  will  deny 
Him,  and  will  perform  the  first  of  all  claims  upon  hu- 
mankind, to  save  myself.  And  not  till  Jesus,  from 
the  midst  of  the  mockings,  and  scourgings,  and  blind- 
foldings  and  blasphemies  of  His  crvicifiers,  turned  and 
looked  upon  Peter, — not  till  then,  and  under  that  look 
of  compassionate  anguish  and  reproach  and  forgive- 
ness, did  Peter  reahze  what  he  had  done,  and  how 
Christ's  own  prayer  was  saving  him. 

And  yet  the  Lord  Jesus  could  not  save  Himself.  It 
was  the  law  of  redemption  given  by  the  Father,  con- 
sented to  by  the  Son,  and  made  known  by  divine  rev- 
elation, that  without  the  shedding  of  blood,  His  own 
blood,  and  the  tasting  of  death  for  every  man  through 
that  propitiatory  sacrifice,  there  could  be  no  remission 
of  sins.  If  Thou  be  the  Christ,  save  Thyself  and  us ! 
Thyself  first,  and  every  self-seeker  shall  forever  be 
justified.     Thyself  first,  and  that  will  be  the  lesson  for 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     I'/S 


us,  which  our  self  first  will  gladly  accept  and  keep: 
but  not  self  last,  not  self-denial. 

Thyself  first,  and  us  by  Thy  divine  power,  not  Thy 
divine  seK-renunciation !  Come  down  from  the  cross, 
and  we  will  believe  Thee,  and  Thou  mayst  s.axie  us! 
Come  down  from  the  cross !  It  is  the  cross  that  we 
deny;  not  Thee.  Come  down  from  the  cross,  and 
take  the  crown;  we  wiU  put  it  upon  Thee. 

The  devil  that  put  it  into  the  heart  of  Judas  to  be- 
tray Christ,  and  of  Peter  to  deny  Him,  put  it  also 
into  the  heart  of  His  crucifiers  to  make  this  proposi- 
tion to  Him.  And  at  any  time  Christ  could  have  put 
an  end  to  aU  this  agony,  and  changed  the  scene  into 
triumph.  While  life  lasted.  He  had  the  power  to 
have  avoided  death,  and  to  have  put  away  from  Him- 
self, from  His  own  sovil,  the  cup  which  the  Father 
had  given  Him,  and  which  He  drank  openly,  as  on 
"the  central  gaUows  of  the  universe." 

HimseK  He  cannot  save !  It  is  the  last  seal  of  in- 
spiration, of  infinite  truth,  of  divine  love,  a  testimony 
of  siipernatural  mystery  and  meaning  and  power, 
ministered  even  by  Satan,  and  the  soldiers,  and  the 
men  that  drove  the  nails,  and  the  priests  that  had 
secured  His  dying,  and  the  disciples  who  forsook  Him 
and  fled.  In  the  very  nat\u-e  and  essence  of  His  all- 
conquering  and  suffering  benevolence,  HimseK  He 
cannot  save!     He  was  crucified  through  this  weak- 


i'/6     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

ness,  V)ut  it  was  the  strength  of  God,  the  cannot  of 
omnipotence  and  infinite  love.  He  cannot  deny  Him- 
self. He  cannot  come  down  fi'om  the  cross,  for  He 
made  it  for  Himself,  and  bore  our  sins  upon  it.  "  Now 
is  my  soul  troubled,  and  what  shall  I  say  ?  Father, 
save  Me  from  this  hour  ?  But  for  this  cause  came  I 
unto  this  hour.  Father,  glorify  Thy  name!  Then 
came  the  voice  fi'om  heaven,  I  have  both  glorified  it, 
and  will  glorify  it  again."  Trouble,  even  unto  death 
may  be  the  very  place,  the  very  time,  the  very  expe- 
rience unto  which  we  have  been  appointed  by  the 
Father  to  do  His  work,  to  accomplish  the  glory  of 
His  divine  love  among  men. 

Himself  He  cannot  save !  It  is  only  through  His 
own  death,  that  He  is  life  and  salvation  to  others; 
through  suffering  and  death  borne  meekly,  volunta- 
rily, for  a  sinning,  dying,  lost  world;  only  thus  that 
He  is  the  Hght  and  life  of  the  world;  because  He  will 
and  must  save  others,  by  the  sacrifice  of  Himself. 
"What  wonderful  utterances  of  the  very  principle  of  the 
Atonement,  as  by  the  souls  of  murderous  Caiaphases, 
inspired  against  their  own  purposes  and  selfish  will, 
and  made  vocal  by  the  infinite,  constraining,  prophe- 
sying Spirit,  uttering  Christ's  meaning  in  their  own 
counsels  and  words,  their  own  selfishness  and  pride 
Christ's  divine   watchword,   when  they  meant  their 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     /// 

If  Thou  be  the  Christ,  the  King  of  the  Jews,  said 
His  revilers,  save  Thyself.  A  most  wonderful  crys- 
tallization into  two  words  of  the  ftrinciple  of  sin 
and  human  selfishness,  brought  face  to  face  with 
the   divine   principle   of  suffering   love. 

The  watch-word  of  the  King  of  Israel,  the  Saviour 
of  the  Jews  and  of  mankind,  was  this:  "Sacrifice 
Thyself  for  others";  seek  not  Thine  own,  but  others' 
good.  The  maxim  that  always  crucifies  Christ  is  this: 
Save  thyself.  The  maxim  that  enthrones  and  honors 
Christ  is  this:  Lose  thyself  for  Christ's  sake,  and  He 
will  find  thee,  and  thou  shalt  find  thyself  in  Him. 
And  therefore  the  inscription  over  the  cross  was  left 
by  Pilate,  just  as  he  had  ivritten  it,  in  spite  of  every 
remonstrance.  This  is  Jesus  of  Nazaeeth,  the  King 
OF  the  Jews.  This  crucified  One,  Who  could  not 
save  Himself,  and  so,  in  and  by  this  very  self-sac- 
rifice, is  their  Eternal  King  !  This  is  He :  And  what 
I  have  written,  I  have  written. 

And  so,  the  maxim  of  faith  and  self-desi^air — faith 
out  of  the  bosom  of  self-des^jau*,  beholding  Christ, 
is  just  this.  Lord  save  me !  I  perish !  Christ  on  the 
cross  dying,  is  the  power,  both  of  demonstration  and 
salvation;  not  Christ  coming  down  from  the  cross 
where  men's  mahgnity  and  cruelty  had  nailed  Him. 
But  Christ  on  the  cross,  bearing  our  sins,  and  re- 
fusing  to  put    aside   this   burden,   refusing  to   save 


7/(5*     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

Himself  in  order  that  He  naight  save  us!     That  is 
God's  demonstration;  that  indeed  is  divine. 

The  discovery  of  every  man's  scientific  experiments 
through  hfe  and  the  trial  of  life,  and  so  far  as  he 
can  do  it,  of  death,  in  his  own  laboratory,  is,  I  per- 
ish! The  result  of  every  man's  own  inquiries  into 
the  conservation,  correlation,  and  conversion  of  forces, 
is  just  this:  It  is  sin,  that  is  alone  conserved,  cor- 
related into  misery,  and  converted  into  death.  For 
sin,  when  it  is  finished,  bringeth  forth  death,  and 
nothing  but  faith  in  Chi-ist  dying  for  us  that  we 
may  not  die  eternally,  can  stop  it. 


XXIII. 

BEARING  OF  THE  NARRATIVE  OF  THE  RESURRECTION 
UPON  THIS  WHOLE  ARGUMENT:  FIRST,  OF  CER- 
TAINTY; SECOND,  VARIETY;  THIRD,  CONGRUITY; 
rOURTH,  OF  FORGIVENESS  AND  ASSURED  SALVA- 
TION, AS  IN  PAUL'S  TESTIMONY  IN  FIRST  CORINTH- 
lANS,  FIFTEENTH  CHAPTER. 

In  the  narrative  of  the  Resurrection  there  is  the 
same  great  and  noticeable  law,  it  is  written,  bearing 
all  things  onward  to  the  mighty  invisible  predicted  tri- 
umph; and  we  have  the  effect  of  this  amazing  event 
\ipon  the  mind,  as  the  successive  opening  of  its  won- 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity.     lyg 

drous  gates  discloses  the  reality,  before  yet  there  is 
calmness  and  leisure  to  gather  into  one  conceiDtion 
and  belief  the  whole  overwhelming  glory;  the  mean- 
ing of  the  plan  of  prophecy  fulfilled  in  such  an  ending. 
We  have  the  hurry,  the  amazement,  the  dismay,  the 
sudden  joy,  the  sudden  bursts  of  doubt  and  faith,  de- 
spair and  hope;  returning  disbeUef  as  clouds  after  the 
rain,  and  tempests  after  the  rainbow;  the  alternations 
of  doubtfixlness  and  certainty,  sorrow  and  joy,  tears 
and  smiles,  an  April  day  of  storm  and  sunshine;  or 
a  storm  at  sea  with  hghtning  at  midnight  like  that 
upon  the  lake  of  Galilee,  with  Christ  walking  on 
the  sea,  and  the  terrified  beholders  of  His  Majesty 
themselves  crying  out  for  fear  in  the  behef  that 
they  have  seen  a  spirit.  It  is  a  succession  of  events, 
the  meaning  of  which  evidently  as  yet  no  one  knows. 
It  is  not  yet  disclosed,  it  is  not  yet  comprehended. 
And  the  brokenness  of  the  narratives,  the  inextrica- 
ble combinations,  complications  and  confusions,  as 
of  images  flitting  with  the  suddenness  of  spirits 
among  each  other,  and  across  each  other's  path, 
and  apparently  within  each  other's  personal  iden- 
tity, and  sometimes  not  even  the  presence  recog- 
nized or  remembered,  of  the  very  fellow-witness,  or 
dear  friend,  or  brother,  who  went  with  you  and 
stood  by  you  and  shared  your  amazement  at  the 
overwhelming   discovery;    so   that,    if  you   were   put 


i8o     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

upon  the  stand  and  cross-examined,  you  could  not 
possibly  account  for  it  or  make  it  comprehensible, 
how  you  should  have  seen  what  your  companion 
did  not,  or  how  he  should  have  seen  and  remem- 
bered what  you  did  not,  though  both  were  equally 
sincere  and  earnest,  with  equal  command  of  all  the 
means  of  knowing  the  truth. 

It  is  a  most  wonderful  picture,  so  that  it  may 
almost  be  affirmed  that  nothing  in  the  Resurrec- 
tion is  more  supernatural,  suj^posing  that  it  did  take 
place,  than  the  contrivance  or  creation  of  this  for- 
gery of  it,  and  of  the  conduct  of  those  who  saw  it, 
supposing  that  it  did  not.  It  is  a  narrative  that 
no  impostor,  nor  forger,  nor  a  hundred  thousand 
experts  at  forgery,  though  each  possessed  as  great 
a  genius  as  Shakespeare's  could  ever  have  produced. 
For  that  lightning-hke  photograph  of  the  Resurrec- 
tion transactions  is  as  the  revelation  of  the  mid- 
night storm  over  a  vast  mysterious  country  of  moun- 
tains and  hamlets,  suddenly  disclosed  in  a  flash  of 
lightning  shining  from  the  east  to  the  west;  every- 
thing seen  for  one  moment  in  startUng  distinctness, 
and  then  gone,  and  then  again  jiartially  and  mo- 
mentarily visible,  and  then  again  gone  in  darkness! 

Now  it  is  a  very  remarkable  feature  of  aU  this 
testimony,  and  this  demonstration  of  overwhelming 
amazement,  and  yet  increduhty,  maintaining  its  hold 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     i8i 

over  them  so  long,  that  not  one  of  these  witnesses 
pretends  to  have  seen  the  Lord  Jesus  arise.  They 
profess  nothing  more  than  just  this,  that  they  he- 
held  Him,  conversed  with  Him,  ate  and  drank  with 
Him,  and  received  their  commission  from  Him,  in 
such  continuance  of  demonstration,  that  when  it  was 
concluded  by  His  ascension  into  heaven,  out  of  their 
sight,  left  them  no  more  room  for  doubt.  They  had 
certainly  seen  Him  taken  down  from  the  cross,  and 
laid  in  the  grave.  If  now  they  should  see  Him  Hv- 
ing  again,  they  were  competent  witnesses;  for  there 
is  no  conceivable  jugglery  of  imposture,  by  which 
they  could  have  been  deluded.  They  could  not  be 
mistaken  about  Christ  dying.  That  took  place  in 
view  of  aU  the  world  as  spectators.  But  the  Eesiir- 
rection  took  place  irrespective  of  men's  speculations, 
observations,  arguments,  efforts;  and  what  is  the 
central  evidence,  as  of  the  divine  self-existence,  it 
took  place  without  witnesses.  No  created  being  saw 
the  Resurrection,  or  God's  or  Christ's  exercise  of 
power  in  it;  there  is  no  description  of  it,  though 
there  is  of  the  earthquake  that  preceded  it,  and  of 
the  angel  from  heaven  roUing  the  stone  from  the 
door  of  the  sepulchre,  and  sitting  ujDon  it,  and  say- 
ing. He  is  not  here,  He  is  risen! 

It  was  the  hiding  of  God's  power;  there  was  no 
more  witness  of  it,  or  description,  than  of  the  In- 


i82     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

carnation.  Wlien  the  Son  of  God  became  man,  and 
when  He  rose  from  the  dead,  the  mystery  of  power 
and  glory  is  ahke  invisible,  secret,  divine.  No  man 
saw,  or  knew,  or  revealed  it,  as  a  witness.  Only 
angels  told,  or  were  admitted  to  the  honor  of  tell- 
ing that  Christ  had  risen,  and  they  did  not  say 
that  they  saw  Him  rise.  Angels  were  the  first  preach- 
ers of  the  Resurrection,  as  they  had  been  of  the  In- 
carnation. 

He  is  risen.  He  is  not  here,  as  He  said.  And 
go  quickly,  and  tell  His  disciples  that  He  is  risen 
from  the  dead.  Ye  shall  see  Him  in  Galilee.  Mary 
Magdalene  saw  Him  first,  but  her  testimony  was 
not  believed.  And  Christ  Himself  upbraided  the 
eleven  for  their  unbelief  and  hardness  of  heart,  be- 
cause they  believed  not  those  who  had  seen  Him, 
after  He  had  risen.  The  belief  of  mankind  in  aU  ages 
must  necessarily  rest  upon  the  testimony  of  those 
who  have  seen;  for  all  mankind  could  not  possibly 
see  for  themselves.  If,  therefore,  men  required  to 
see  and  know  by  demonstration  of  their  own  senses, 
or  else  wovdd  not  believe,  they  must  live  and  die 
unbelievers,  and  so  d^dng  were  lost,  even  by  inex- 
orable necessity  of  theii*  senses. 

For  to  this  very  end  Christ  came,  suffered,  died, 
and  rose  again,  that  through  faith  in  Him  men 
might  be   saved   fi'om    their    sins;    and   if    not   thus 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     i8j 

saved,  not  believing,  that  they  might  be  saved, 
then  lost.  If  their,  testimony  of  Christ  having 
risen  was  true,  it  would  be  proved  true  by  the 
results,  in  a  demonstration  increasing  from  age  to 
age,  by  the  glory  of  the  rising  kingdom  of  the  riseai 
Lord;  if  not  true,  there  could  be  no  such  results, 
nor  even  the  possible  embryo  or  beginning  of  them. 
But  if  true,  and  this  transaction,  completed  and  ac- 
complished by  God  for  the  salvation  of  the  soid, 
for  the  soul's  deliverance  from  sin,  and  its  redemj^tion 
in  the  likeness  of  the  risen  Saviour,  by  the  power 
of  His  own  Spirit  dweUing  in  the  soul  through  faith; 
— then  certainly  a  denial  of  all  this,  cutting  off  the 
possibility  of  faith,  cuts  off  also  the  possibility  of 
salvation. 

And  therefore,  when  God  Himself  presents  truth 
for  faith  to  accept  and  act  upon,  it  is  necessarily 
infallible;  and  yet,  even  while  infallible,  it  necessa- 
rily leaves  power  in  the  sovil  to  reject  it,  if  it  will; 
the  power  of  free-agency,  even  of  oj)inion;  ability 
to  stand  up,  even  against  God's  own  testimony,  and 
deny  it,  if  it  will.  Hence  the  fearful  responsibihty 
of  men  undertaking  to  deal  with  God's  money,  God's 
truth,  to  sweat  it  for  the  profit  of  their  own  business, 
by  seUing  their  own  fictions  in  its  place. 

Now  if  this  had  not  been  absolute  trnth,  if  it  had 
been  a  studied   forgery,  it  never  would  have   been 


184     God's  Timepiece foT"  Mans  Eternity. 

submitted  to  mankind  with  such  appearances  of  care- 
lessness and  falsehood.  Every  vacuum  would  have 
been  supj)lied,  every  incongruity  cemented  or  ac- 
counted for;  and  if  it  had  been  a  story,  the  work 
of  premeditated  coUusion,  the  four  witnesses  would 
have  compared  notes  beforehand,  and  erased,  as  far 
as  possible,  every  trace  whether  of  ignorance  or  com- 
plicity. Therefore  we  would  not  change  this  account, 
with  its  apparent  discrepancies,  even  were  they  ten- 
fold what  they  are,  for  the  most  accurate,  perfect, 
lawyer-like,  or  mathematically  fitted  history,  that  the 
art  of  man  could  execute,  or  the  imagination  con- 
ceive. The  testimony  to  the  truth  of  Christianity 
in  the  very  incoherence  of  these  recitals  of  the  fun- 
damental miracle  of  Christianity,  is  invaluable. 


THE  WALK   TO   EMMAUS,   AND  ITS   KEY  TO  THE 
WHOLE   SCRIPTURES. 

The  walk  to  Emmaus  is  as  the  fi-esh,  reviving  dawn, 
and  cloudless  sunrise  after  such  a  storm.  It  consti- 
tutes one  of  the  most  interesting  and  important  por- 
tions of  the  whole  New  Testament,  besides  holding  as 
in  a  separate  safe  the  duphcate  key  to  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  whole  of  the  Old.     It  presents  Christ  to, 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     iS^ 

us  and  to  all  the  world  as  the  sole  divine  authorita- 
tive Commentator  on  the  Word  of  God,  as  given  for 
men's  salvation.  It  brings  our  blessed  Lord  delight- 
fully near  to  us,  under  the  most  famihar  and  en- 
dearing characters,  as  our  Teacher,  Friend,  Saviour. 
We  love  again  and  again  to  walk  with  these  two 
disciples,  to  place  ourselves  in  their  circumstances, 
to  go  back  to  Judea  on  that  evening  of  the  Kesur- 
rection  day,  and  to  listen  ourselves  to  the  divine 
Being,  exj)ounding  unto  us  in  all  the  Scriptures  the 
things  concerning  Himself. 

We  begin  with  the  transactions  of  the  morning. 
The  Saviour  had  been  laid  in  the  grave  by  Joseph 
of  Arimathea,  laid  there  in  his  own  new  sepulchre, 
wherein  never  man  had  been  laid;  and  the  darkness 
of  despair  seemed  to  have  closed  over  the  prosjject. 
The  deed  had  been  accomplished  that  darkened  the 
earth  and  the  heavens,  and  yet  was  the  ministra- 
tion of  the  light  of  an  eternal  salvation  over  both. 
The  sacred  body,  during  the  silence  of  a  whole  Jew- 
ish Sabbath,  reposed  within  the  tomb.  The  morn- 
ing of  the  first  day  of  the  week  drew  towards  its 
dawn.  The  priests  had  triumphed,  the  few  disciples 
trembled  and  wept.  None  knew  the  brightness  of 
the  glory  that  was  forever  to  invest  that  day.  They 
stole  early  to  the  sepulchre,  under  cover  of  the  dark- 
ness, for  fear  of  the  Jews,  some  to  perform  the  last 


i86     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

sad  ofl&ces  of  love,  which  the  interposition  of  the 
Sabbath  had  prevented  their  accomphshing,  some 
to  see  the  place,  and  weep  at  it,  where  Nicodemus 
and  Joseph  had,  on  Friday  night,  laid  all  that  was 
mortal  of  Him  whom  they  loved;  and  some  with  a 
half  acknowledged  hope,  they  knew  not  what,  con- 
nected with  the  third  day  after  the  crucifixion. 

So  they  came  unto  the  sepulchre  at  the  rising  of 
the  sun.  And  they  said  among  themselves,  "Who 
shall  roll  us  away  the  stone  from  the  door  of  the 
sepulchre  ?  "  The  stone  was  already  rolled  away,  and 
they  could  enter  in;  but,  wonder  of  wonders,  their 
Lord  was  gone.  The  hnen  clothes  were  there,  and 
heavenly  watchers  by  an  empty  sepulchre.  A  vision 
of  angels  surj^rised  them,  declaring,  "He  is  risen, 
He  is  not  here,  as  He  said."  The  occurrences  were 
as  yet  too  overwhelming  for  joy;  fuU  of  trembhng 
and  amazement,  they  hurried  to  and  fro,  not  know- 
ing what  to  think.  They  made  a  careful  examination, 
and  repeated  it;  but  only  one  of  them,  the  beloved 
disciple,  seems  to  have  seen  and  believed,  on  the 
sjDot,  before  meeting  Jesus;  for  as  yet  they  knew 
not  the  Scriptures  that  He  must  rise  from  the  dead. 
The  words  that  were  told  them  seemed  as  idle  tales, 
which  they  believed  not;  and  the  empty  sepulchre 
could  not  by  itself  convince  them;  for  plainly,  the 
body  might  have  been   removed   from  it  without  a 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     iSy 

resurrection;  and  such  was  the  assertion  of  Mary- 
Magdalene  to  Peter  and  John:  "They  have  taken 
away  the  Lord  out  of  the  sepulchre,  and  we  know 
not  where  they  have  laid  Him."  And  so  the  disci- 
ples when  they  had  ascertained  the  truth,  that  He 
was  not  there,  went  away  again  to  their  own  home, 
leaving  Mary  at  the  door  of  the  sepulchre  weeping; 
all  of  them  full  of  perplexity,  wondering  in  themselves 
at  that  which  had  come  to  pass,  and  not  knowing 
what  to  make  of  it. 

As  the  disciples  sought  each  their  own  habitation, 
the  two  from  Emmaus  sought  theirs.  Would  they 
ever  be  gathered  again  in  the  glad  hving  presence 
of  Him  whom  they  loved?  One  of  them  was  Cleo- 
phas,  the  brother-in-law  of  the  mother  of  our  Lord. 
Probably  his  habitation  was  at  that  village,  and  his 
companion  was  some  dear  disciple,  who  was  going 
with  him  to  spend  the  night  at  his  house,  where 
they  had  often  enjoyed,  amidst  their  family  cu'cle, 
the  company  of  our  Lord  Himself.  They  left  the 
sepulchre  and  the  city,  anxious,  sad,  doubtful,  and 
astonished.  It  was  seven  miles  and  a  haK  from  the 
city  to  the  village,  but  they  had  enough  to  talk 
upon,  if  the  walk  had  been  a  jDilgrimage  of  seven 
days. 

They  talked  together  of  all  those  things  which  had 
happened.     How  did   they   perplex   themselves  with 


i88     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

oft-repeated  examinations  of  the  strange  events  wliicli 
they  had  heard  reported,  and  partly  seen !  They 
never  could  have  believed,  before  the  crucifixion,  that 
the  chief  priests  and  their  own  countrymen  would 
have  carried  their  wickedness  so  far  They  did  in- 
deed trust  that  it  was  Christ,  who  should  have  re- 
deemed Israel,  but  not  by  suffering  and  death.  And 
now  they  had  lost  Him  forever  and  as  to  any  possi- 
bility of  His  being  stiU  alive,  even  the  vision  of  angels 
rej)orted  by  Joanna  and  the  wife  of  Cleophas  might 
have  been  only  some  new  wickedness  of  the  priests 
themselves,  some  stratagem  of  their  malice,  some  de- 
ception for  a  more  annihilating  disappointment. 

So  they  communed  and  reasoned,  in  much  dark- 
ness, and  in  great  grief,  agitation,  and  excitement  of 
mind.  Amidst  it  aU,  one  thing  is  manifest,  namely, 
their  deep  love  to  Christ;  and  this  it  was,  in  fact,  that 
laid  the  foundation  for  the  after  correction  of  their 
mistakes  in  regard  to  Him. 

"  Their  views  indeed  were  indistinct  and  dim, 
But  yet  successful,  being  aimed  at  Him." 

The  poet  Cowj)er,  who  has  given  in  these  two  lines 
so  j)rofound  and  blessed  an  utterance  of  the  security 
of  the  soul  that  even  in  weakness  and  darkness,  and 
from  the  midst  of  smoke  and  anguish — a  bruised 
reed,  a  heap  of  smoking  flax, — is  seeking  after  Christ, 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     i8g 

has  most  beautifully  drawn  the  picture  of  their  feel- 
ings, and  of  their  walk  and  conversation  together. 

"It  happened  on  a  solemn  eventide, 
Soon  after  He  that  was  our  Surety  died, 
Two  bosom  friends,  each  pensively  inclined. 
The  scene  of  all  their  sorrows  left  behind. 
Sought  their  own  village,  busied  as  they  went, 
In  musings  worthy  of  the  great  event. 

They  spake  of  Him  they  loved,  of  Him  whose  life, 
Though  blameless,  had  incurred  perpetual  strife; 
Whose  deeds  had  left,  in  spite  of  hostile  arts, 
A  deep  memorial  graven  on  their  hearts; 
They  thought  Him,  and  they  justly  thought  Him,  One 
Sent  to  do  more  than  He  appeared  to  have  done ; 
To  exalt  a  people,  and  to  place  them  high 
Above  all  else,  and  wondered  He  should  die." 

That  was  it :  they  wondered  He  should  die  !  They 
wondered,  when  they  remembered  that  He  had  said, 
If  any  man  keep  My  saying  he  shall  never  see  death. 
They  had  wondered  when  they  heard  Moses  and  Ehas 
speak  of  His  decease  at  Jerusalem.  They  wondered 
when  He  had  said,  My  Father  loveth  Me,  because  I 
lay  down  My  life  that  I  might  take  it  again.  They 
wondered  when  they  heard  Him  say,  I  am  the  Good 
Shepherd,  and  the  Good  Shepherd  layeth  down  His 
life  for  the  sheep.  And  when  He  said,  signifying 
what  death  He  should  die,  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from 
the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  Me,  they,  with  all 


igo     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

the  people,  wondered,  and  answered  Him,  We  have 
heard  out  of  the  law  tliat  Christ  abjdeth  forever. 
And  how  sayest  Thou,  The  Son  of  man  must  be  lifted 
up?  Who  is  this  Son  of  man?  How  can  He  die 
Himself,  who  giveth  life  to  others  ?  They  wondered 
because  they  had  heard  Him  say,  I  am  the  Eesurrec- 
tion  and  the  Life.  He  that  believeth  in  Me,  though 
he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live ;  and  whosoever  liveth 
and  beheveth  in  Me,  shall  never  die.  They  won- 
dered, when  Mary  anointed  His  feet  with  spikenard, 
so  that  the  house  was  filled  with  the  odor  of  the  oint- 
ment, and  Jesus  said,  Against  the  day  of  My  burjdng 
haih  she  kept  this,  for  the  poor  always  j^e  have  with 
you,  but  Me  ye  have  not  always.  They  wondered  the 
more,  the  longer  He  staid  with  them,  and  the  more 
they  beheld  His  glory,  that  ever  He  could  be  taken 
from  them. 

So  indeed,  it  was  not  so  much  the  want  of  faith, 
as  it  was  the  superabundance  and  misdirection  of 
their  faith,  that  affirmed  for  Him  the  impossibility 
of  the  cross,  and  the  necessity  of  a  self-existence  in 
glory  and  haj^piness  on  earth,  of  which  He  would 
make  them  also,  and  aU  that  followed  Him  and  loved 
Him  the  beatified  partakers.  Every  day  that  they 
staid  with  Him,  and  He  with  them,  they  were  living 
more  and  more  habitually  in  the  blessedness  of  His 
existence,  and  desired  no  greater  thing  than  to  have 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,     igi 


Him  with  them  forever.  A  little  longer,  and  they 
wovild  have  wished  for  no  other  heaven,  there  was 
biich  infinite  attraction  in  His  love,  such  communica- 
tion of  the  bliss  of  heaven  in  His  loving  words,  so 
that,  ever  since  they  knew  Him  they  had  prayed  like 
the  restored  demoniac  sitting  peacefully  at  His  feet 
clothed  and  in  his  right  mind,  that  they  might  abide 
with  Him  forever,  and  He  with  them.  It  was  their 
very  love,  and  the  fervor  of  behef  in  His  power  and 
glory,  as  the  coming  King  of  Israel,  that  made  them 
wonder  that  He  should  ever  die. 

They  had  seen  Him  dealing  with  the  powers  of  na- 
ture as  a  Being  of  supreme  authority  over  them,  com- 
manding even  the  devils  and  they  obeyed  Him,  dis- 
pensing the  forces  of  life  and  disi^ersing  the  terrors 
of  disease  and  death,  as  one  might  drop  syllables 
from  his  tongue,  or  breathe  away  the  frost-work  of 
a  winter's  night  from  the  windows.  This  was  certainly 
the  King  of  Israel.  Lift  up  your  heads  O  ye  gates, 
and  let  the  King  of  glory  enter !  Ye  gates  of  nature 
and  of  life,  unfold  before  Him,  that  He  and  aR  His 
train  may  occupy  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord.  Hosan- 
na  to  the  Son  of  David !  For  behold  He  cometh  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord,  Hosanna  in  the  highest! 

It  was  the  inevitable  outbreak  of  the  concentration 
and  observance  of  three  years'  miracles  in  power,  and 
vet  gfreater  miracles  in  holiness  and  love.     The  won- 


ig2     God's  Timepiece  for  Maris  Eternity. 

der  was  that  the.  hosanuas  had  not  broken  out  long 
before  they  did,  making  the  mountains  and  the  vales  of 
all  Judea  one  resounding  hymn  of  praise,  and  adora- 
tion, and  that  the  people  could  have  been  kept  back 
from  an  uproar  of  the  proclamation  of  their  King. 

But  after  all  these  mii'acles  of  grace  and  glory, 
who  was  He  ?  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  Son  of  Joseph 
the  carpenter,  whose  first  lesson  was  that  of  accepted 
poverty,  humiliation,  self-denial,  suffering,  and  sim- 
phcity  and  humility  as  a  little  child's.  Oh  how  im- 
possible, when  we  know  what  human  nature  is,  under 
the  curse  of  the  habit  of  self-worship,  and  self-indul- 
gence, from  which  Christ  came  to  save  us,  that  they 
should  have  understood  this,  until  Jesus  Himself  had 
baptized  them  also  with  suffering. 

"With  their  minds  and  hearts  full  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament glory,  and  of  wonder,  awe  and  ecstasy  at 
Christ's  manifestation  of  it  in  miraculous  authority 
and  power,  and  with  the  confidence  that  they  were 
all  beginning  to  exercise  in  Him,  as  the  Christ,  the 
Son  of  the  Living  God,  it  was  next  to  impossible 
that  they  should  take  the  suffering  and  death, 
which  had  not  yet  been  demonstrated,  and  inter- 
pret and  believe  in  their  light,  the  august  manifes- 
tations of  glory  and  grandevu",  thi'ough  which  even 
then  they  were  passing. 

They    could    not    see   nor   understand  the    Cross, 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    ig^ 

through  the  bright  cloud  that  overshadowed  them; 
and  though  in  their  hearing  Moses  and  EHas  spake 
of  His  decease,  which  He  should  accomplish  at  Jeru- 
salem, yet  they  heard  it  as  dreamers  do,  when  heavy 
with  sleep;  and  they  could  only  be  filled  with  amaze- 
ment, as  they  journeyed  with  Him  towards  the  holy 
city,  and  observed  with  awe  His  supernatural  bright- 
ness. 

In  the  record  of  the  Transfiguration,  what  won- 
derful reticence !  What  infinite  dignity  in  the  ap- 
pearance and  disappearance  of  Moses  and  EHas ! 
What  reverence  and  sacred  awe  in  the  whole  trans- 
action, so  brief,  so  unsatisfactory  to  those  who  were 
craving  for  signs  and  wonders!  "Who  apj)eared  in 
glory  and  spake  of  his  decease,  which  He  should  ac- 
compUsh  at  Jerusalem";  but  not  one  word  is  given 
of  their  conversation.  Had  this  been  apocryphal,  or 
a  forgery  to  be  imposed  uj)on  men's  credulity,  Moses 
and  Elias  would  have  been  led  into  Rabbinical  prat- 
tle, wovild  have  referred  to  their  past  existence,  would 
have  betrayed  the  vanity  and  talkativeness  that  clumsy 
forgers  have  always  fallen  into  in  their  lies. 

But  not  a  word  of  their  communion  with  Christ  is 
detailed  save  only  that  they  spake  of  His  decease 
to  be  accompUshed  at  Jerusalem.  Thither  the  dis- 
ciples knew  that  He  was  going,  and  as  He  Himself 
had  taught  them,  to  be  crucified.     And  yet,  not  one 


ig4     God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity. 

word  did  they  understand;  and  so  entirely  was  the 
meaning  hidden  from  them,  that  even  on  the  moun- 
tain the  desu'e  of  them  all  was  expressed  by  Peter,  in 
the  prayer  that  they  might  be  permitted  then  and 
there  to  build  three  tabernacles,  one  for  the  Lord, 
one  for  Moses,  one  for  Elias.  Not  a  word  in  behalf 
of  Peter,  James,  and  John !  Self,  itseK,  was  swallowed 
up  and  transfigured  in  that  petition. 

They  wondered  that  He  should  die,  and  the  wonder 
would  have  been  if  they  had  not  wondered.  For 
what  had  the  mighty  God,  the  Father  of  eternity,  the 
Prince  of  hfe,  to  do  with  death?  They  had  heard  out 
of  the  law  that  Christ,  their  Messiah,  the  Desire  of 
nations,  abideth  forever;  He  that  should  come  and 
set  up  Daniel's  predicted  everlasting  kingdom  with 
such  dominion  and  glory  that  all  peojDle,  nations  and 
languages  should  serve  Him;  so  that  the  saints  of 
the  Most  High  should  take  the  kingdom  and  "  possess 
the  kingdom  forever,  even  forever  and  ever." 

They  had  heard  that  this  wonderful  Being  should 
Himself  eternally  reign  over  them;  and  certainly  He 
must  so  do,  or  these  august  predictions  were  lighter 
than  vanity.  For  what  could  a  dying  man  do  with 
them,  or  by  them,  a  man  whose  breath  is  in  his  nos- 
trils? The  first  enemy  that  the  jDredicted  King  of 
glory  should  overcome  was  death;  otherwise,  like 
common  men,  whom  God  turneth  to  destruction,  and 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    ig^' 

who  none  of  them  can  keep  ahve  their  own  soul, 
"  His  breath  goeth  forth,  He  returneth  to  His  earth, 
in  that  very  day  His  thoughts  perish; "  and  what 
then  becomes  of  His  kingdom  and  His  seed  forever, 
and  His  throne  which  was  to  be  as  the  days  of 
heaven,  and  as  the  sun  and  the  moon  before  God, 
established  forever? 

So,  just  in  jDrojDortion  to  the  greatness  of  their  faith 
in  Grod  and  in  Christ,  and  in  the  word  of  God,  as 
(with  understandings  yet  darkened),  they  received  it, 
in  regard  to  Him,  was  then-  confidence  that  He  should 
never  die,  but  that  He  should  hve,  as  the  Author  and 
Giver  of  life,  the  Ancient  of  days,  and  should  make 
aU  His  chosen  people  Israel,  good,  wise,  holy,  happy, 
like  Himself. 

They  had  expected  a  temporal  dehverer,  and  though 
that  expectation  had  been  much  piirified  from  its 
grossness  by  their  long  abode  with  Christ,  yet  all  the 
instructions  of  our  blessed  Lord  could  not  disabuse 
their  minds  of  this  expectation.  They  clung  to  it 
with  such  pertinacity  and  fondness,  that  it  was  as  a 
blind  to  keep  them  from  seeing  anything  in  its  true 
light. 

The  very  miracles  that  proved  Chi'ist's  divine  power, 
every  one  of  them  confirmed  their  faith  in  the  con- 
tinuance of  that  powei',  through  His  divine  person- 
ality  and   presence.     And   they   themselves   wore   to 


ig6     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

sit  upon  twelve  thrones  around  the  throne  of  His 
glory.  And  every  one  of  them  that  had  left  houses 
or  lands,  parents,  brethren,  waives,  children,  for  the 
kingdom  of  God's  sake,  were  to  receive  manifold 
more  in  this  present  time,  and  in  the  world  to  come, 
life  everlasting.  "Well,  in  order  to  all  this,  the  Lord 
and  Giver  of  all  this  must  certainly  remain  with  them, 
and  Himself  bestow  it  upon  them.  If  not  His  gift, 
they  did  not  desire  it. 

The  record  in  Luke's  Gospel,  xviii.  31-34,  is  a  pas- 
sage presenting  their  state  of  mind  a  very  short  time 
previous  to  the  crucifixion,  on  occasion  of  the  an- 
nouncement by  Christ  of  the  nearness  of  that  coming 
traged3^  So  completely  were  their  views  of  the  Mes- 
siah's kingdom  limited  to  this  side  the  grave,  and  to 
the  continuance  of  His  existence  in  this  world,  that 
even  the  scenes  of  the  last  three  days  of  our  Lord's 
life  at  Jerusalem,  the  exhibitions  of  infinite  condescen- 
sion and  love  which  He  made  for  their  instruction  in 
washing  His  disciples'  feet,  and  the  repeated  assur- 
ances of  what  was  certainly  to  happen  had  Httle  or 
no  efiect  in  convincing  them. 

One  would  have  thought  that  His  sufferings  in 
Gethsemane,  His  betrayal,  His  arraignment,  would 
have  been  enough  to  dissipate  their  delusions;  but  no, 
not  even  the  crucifixion  itself  could  cure  them.  They 
returned  again  with  His  resurrection  from  the  dead; 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eterjtity.    igy 


and  even  after  the  forty  daj^s  still  spent  by  Him  on 
earth,  and  at  the  very  last  moment,  just  as  He  was  to 
be  received  up  into  heaven,  they  proposed  to  Him 
the  question.  Lord  wilt  thou  at  this  time  restore  again 
the  kingdom  to  Israel?  It  was  a  national  preposses- 
sion of  patriotic  and  rehgious  pride,  and  hope,  and 
glory,  more  powerful,  more  intense,  and  unmanageable, 
because  in  its  origin  unquestionably  divine,  than  any 
similar  impulse  that  ever  swayed,  or  could  sway,  either 
rulers  or  people. 


XXV. 

THE  INEVITABLE  RESULT  OF  THE  CATASTROPHE-A 
DIVINE  PRESENCE  ALONE  COULD  HAVE  PREVENTED 
UTTER  DESPAIR— IT  WAS  LOVE  TO  CHRIST  THAT 
ENLIGHTENED  AND  PRESERVED  THEIR  SOULS. 

And  now  the  contrast  and  the  clashing,  the  ship- 
wreck of  their  brightest  hopes,  was  a  ruin  that  seemed 
impossible  for  them  to  endure.  Hopes  that  had  been 
fostered  as  the  personal  inheritance  of  every  mother 
and  daughter  and  first-born  son  in  Israel,  for  three 
thousand  years?  The  mind  is  at  a  loss  to  conceive 
the  extremity  of  despair  and  unbehef  resulting  from 
such   an   appalling   conclusion  as  that    of   this   vast 


ig8     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

tragedy.  No  Avonder  that  they  feared,  as  they  entered 
into  this  cloud. 

The  deepest  ignorance  and  darkness  were  the  ne- 
cessary result,  at  first,  of  all  these  cherished  miscon- 
ceiDtions.  It  was  the  profoundest  mistake  that  ever 
any  kingdom  or  nation  on  earth  had  been  educated 
upon,  and  the  character  of  a  whole  people  trained 
in  it  from  their  infancy.  It  is  difficult  for  us  to  im- 
agine the  amount  of  exalted  faith  which  must  have 
possessed  the  hearts  and  minds  of  such  men  as  Sim- 
eon and  Zechariah,  and  such  women  as  Anna  the 
prophetess,  looking  for  redemption  in  Israel,  and 
exclaiming,  Lord  now  lettest  Thou  thy  servant  depart 
in  peace,  according  to  Thy  word,  for  mine  eyes  have 
seen  Thy  salvation,  which  Thou  hast  j)repared  before 
the  face  of  all  nations,  A  light  to  lighten  the  Gentiles 
and  the  glory  of  Thy  peoj)le  Israel.  How  could  this 
ever  be  accomplished  through  the  death  of  Him  in 
whose  eternal  life  and  kingdom  they  were  to  reign 
over  the  whole  earth? 

The  whole  fabric  of  their  hopes  had  been  annihil- 
ated, for  Christ  had  died.  And  there  was  no  possibil-^ 
it}^  for  the  forgery  of  a  new  Christ  to  have  been 
palmed  upon  them.  The  archangel  Gabriel,  had  he 
come  to  them  from  the  tomb  could  not  have  deceived 
them.  After  more  than  three  years  of  loving  com- 
munion with  Him,  and  friendship  and  intimacy  such  as 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,     igg 

tliey  had  enjoyed,  all  the  universe  could  not  have  sup- 
plied a  counterpart  for  His  place  in  their  affections. 
For  it  was  not  as  a  mere  temporal  deliverer  that  they 
had  loved  Him.  Our  Lord  had  drawn  them  by  the 
infinite  lovelhiess  of  His  character,  with  such  a  power 
of  attachment,  that  no  exhibition  of  grandeur  in  Him- 
self, nor  promises  of  greatness  to  them,  could  ever 
have  excited  or  sustained. 

But  instead  of  glory,  he  had  promised  them  humili- 
ation; instead  of  riches,  poverty;  instead  of  ease,  per- 
secution; instead  of  self-enjoyment,  tribulation;  instead 
of  honor  in  this  world,  disgrace  and  contempt;  instead 
of  a  throne,  the  prison;  instead  of  a  crown,  the  cross. 
And  yet  they  loved  Him !  Most  remarkable  phenome- 
non !  They  had  been  with  Him  by  night  and  by  day, 
and  they  could  not  help  loving  Him.  They  loved  Him 
in  spite  of  themselves,  in  spite  of  their  own  ambition, 
in  spite  of  all  His  assurances  of  persecution  and  dis- 
tress, in  spite  of  all  His  rebukes  of  theu'  spiiit  of 
worldUness,  in  spite  of  all  His  repeated  denial  and  de- 
struction of  their  temporal  hopes  and  expectations;  stiU 
tUey  loved  Him.  They  loved  Him  indeed,  with  a 
dee^Der  love,  the  more  He  broke  their  hold  on  the 
plans  and  things  of  this  world,  the  more  He  severed 
them  from  all  that  as  men  and  as  Jews  they  held  dear. 
The  more  He  chastened  their  spirits,  and- taught  them 
His  grand  lesson  of  lowliness  and  self-denial,  the  more 


200     Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eteriiity. 

they  loved  Him.  The  nearer  He  brought  them  to  Hun- 
self  in  spirit,  the  more  entirely  they  loved  Him  and 
rested  in  Him,  and  found  in  His  love  the  beginning  of 
eternal  life. 

There  is  something  infinitely  beautiful  and  convinc- 
ing in  this  exhibition  of  the  power  of  our  Lord's  char- 
acter. They  had  discovei'ed  in  Him  a  Being,  to  know 
and  to  love  whose  personality,  was  the  very  peace  of 
God,  that  passeth  all  understanding,  was  pei'fect  rest 
and  blessedness  to  the  soul.  No  other  such  Lord  of 
life,  and  Giver  of  conscious  blessedness  could  ever  be 
known  or  imagined  in  the  world.  For  this  reason  they 
could  not  be  imj)osed  ujjou.  The  forger  wovdd  have 
been  detected  the  instant  he  ajopeared.  And  so,  these 
loving,  trusting,  simple-minded,  but  keenly  and  mor- 
ally discerning  men,  in  whose  hearts  no  place  could  be 
found  but  for  Christ  crucified,  were  chosen  as  the  fit- 
test first  witnesses  of  His  resurrection  when  they 
should  have  received  its  proof.  They  knew  xolvom.  they 
had  believed,  and  covild  no  more  be  deceived  by  an- 
other, than  Jesus  Himself  could  have  deceived  them. 

The  disciples  had  this  sustaining  and  inwardly  coa- 
vincing  and  discerning  love,  but  they  had  not  yet  a 
corresponding  faith,  or  but  very  Httle  of  it.  And  when 
Jesus  died,  their  love  itself  seemed  to  have  been 
changed  into  hopeless,  unbeheving  sorrow;  grief  with- 
out faith.     They  could  not  penetrate  the  future,  could 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,     201 

not  understand  oiu'  Lord's  plan.  Everything  seemed 
broken  up,  interrupted,  destroyed  forever.  Even  our 
Lord's  last  discourses,  as  detailed  with  such  simpHcity, 
preciousness,  and  graciousness  by  John,  seem  to  have 
failed  of  being  appreciated,  exce]3t  that  their  une- 
qualled" tenderness  could  not  but  draw  the  disciples 
more  closely  stiU  to  Him ;  but  yet  they  knew  not  what 
He  meant.  When  He  died,  they  were  overwhelmed. 
An  impassable  gulf  seemed  to  have  ojjened  at  their 
feet,  and  they  could  not  cross  it,  even  in  imagination; 
and  when  the  bridge  had  been  thrown  over  it,  connect- 
ing the  past,  the  present  and  the  future  in  our  Lord's 
resurrection,  and  taking  up  and  renewing  again  the  dis- 
severed tissue  of  their  fondest  expectations,  they  could 
not  at  first  believe  their  own  eyes,  much  leBs  under- 
stand the  wonderful  transaction.  The  bridge  itself 
was  too  serial,  and  shot  up  too  suddenly  into  heaven, 
and  was  so  terrifying  in  its  loftiness,  that  they  dared 
not  ti-ust  themselves  upon  it.  So  they  now  pursued 
their  lonely  desolate  pilgrimage,  to  Eternity,  caring 
little,  now  that  Jesus  had  gone  from  them,  how  soon 
their  own  life  might  be  ended. 

In  the  midst  of  their  grief,  as  they  thus  communed 
and  reasoned,  in  anguish  uncontrollable,  yet  not  un- 
reasonable, a  stranger  overtook  them.  With  tones  of 
sympathy  and  love.  He  enqiiired  the  cause  of  their 
sorrowful  and  earnest  conversation.     "What  manner 


202     God's  Timepiece  for  Ma7is  Eternity. 

of  communications  are  these  that  ye  have  one  to 
another,  as  ye  walk,  and  are  sad?"  And  then,  in 
the  simpHcity  of  their  astonishment  that  any  person 
should  think  that  any  other  subject  than  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  could  occupy  their  attention,  they  took  it 
for  granted  that  He  must  be  a  stranger  in  Jerusalem, 
or  He  would  not  have  dreamed  of  their  talking  about 
anything  else;  and  so,  with  their  hearts  won  by  His 
benevolence,  they  poured  out  aU  their  sorrows  and 
doubts  before  Him.* 

*  In  the  "Kevised  Version,"  the  simplicity  and  tenderness  of 
this  recital  are  greatly  marred  by  the  omission  of  the  words 
"and  are  sad,"  from  verse  seventeen.  The  inimitable  beauty  of 
the  record  is  in  the  expression  of  Christ's  own  sympathizing  no- 
tice of  the  dejection  and  distress  of  the  pilgrims.  While  they 
communed  and  reasoned  Jesus  Himself  drew  near,  and  went  with 
them.  He  did  not  stop  them,  but  joined  them  walking,  and  as 
they  walked,  put  the  question,  "What  are  these,  your  conversa- 
tions, as  ye  walk  and  are  sad  ?  The  sadness  of  their  communion 
was  what  He  had  observed  and  inquired  about,  as  if  He  had  said, 
Tell  Me,  for  I  would  share  in  your  sorrows. 

The  revisers  have  put  it  in  such  a  shape,  that  the  sadness  seems 
to  have  been  a  sudden  result  of  the  stranger's  question,  What 
are  you  talking  about  as  you  walk?  The  revision  reads:  "And 
they  stood  still,  looking  sad."  As  if  the  interrogation  of  the 
newcomer  had  itself  stopped  and  saddened  them.  This  intru- 
sion is  not  in  the  Greek  text  of  any  authoritative  MS.  The  re- 
visors  give  no  reason  for  the  alteration  except  a  marginal  refer- 
ence to  S.  V.  A.  MSS,  "and  they  stood  sad,"  but  the  revision  gives 
it,  "  And  they  stood  still,  looking  sad." 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     20  j 

How  were  they  astonished,  when  He  broke  forth,  as 
master  of  the  whole  subject,  O  fools,  and  slow  of  heart 
to  believe  all  that  the  prophets  hare  spoken !  Ought 
not  Christ  to  suffer  these  things,  and  to  enter  into  His 
gioiy?  Should  you  not  have  known,  with  the  sHght- 
est  spiritual  acquaintance  with  the  tenor  of  the  proph- 
ets, that  the  path  of  your  Messiah's  glory  led  through 
suffering  and  death?  And  then  at  once  He  opened  to 
their  minds  such  new  views  of  truth,  and  poured  such 
a  flood  of  hght  over  the  prophetic  Scriptures,  as 
made  the  Bible  seem  to  them  a  new  revelation.  With 
what  sweet  and  gracious  power  and  clearness  did  He 
lead  them  through  its  various  eras  and  vast  fields  of 
thought,  presenting  explanation  after  explanation  of 
its  mysteries. 

Then  first  did  they  begin  to  comprehend  the 
reign  of  their  Messiah,  and  the  scheme  of  redemp- 
tion. Well  might  theu'  hearts  burn  within  them, 
when  an  unknown  Saviour  was  expounding  unto 
them  in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things  concern- 
ing Himself!  That  this  exposition  was  the  con- 
quest of  death  and  sin  by  the  undeserved  suffer- 
ings and  death  of  the  sinless  and  blameless  Deliverer, 
through  His  own  blood  shed  for  the  remission  of 
sins,  and  that  this  exposition  has  ever  since  been 
proved  the  only  source  of  the  happiness  of  heaven 
among  men,  is  itself  the  crowning  demonstration  be- 


20^     Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

fore    the   opening    of   Eternity,    that    Christianity   is 
divine. 

Oh  what  a  furrow  of  light  did  His  path  trace,  over 
the  sacred  pages!  What  notes  of  sovd-eutrancing 
melody,  what  celestial  regions  of  thought,  what  pro- 
found depths  of  meaning,  as  the  Hand  that  made 
the  Harj)  of  sacred  Prophecy  swept  across  its  strings ! 
Every  passage,  every  line,  every  word  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, as  He  brought  them  to  their  remembrance, 
was  spirit  and  Hfe  to  their  souls.  As  passage  after 
passage  rose  up  before  them,  the  film  passed  from 
their  moral  vision,  and  everywhere  they  beheld  the 
Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world ! 


XXYI. 

POINTS  OF  VISION  AND  INTERPRETATION  UNQUES- 
TIONABLE—NECESSARY MINUTENESS  OF  THE  SUR- 
VEY—THE WHOLE  A  DIVINE  PREPARATION  FOR 
PREACHING  AND  TEACHING  CONCERNING  CHRIST, 
THE  WAY,  THE  TRUTH,  THE  LIFE— THE  PROPY- 
L^UM  OF  CHRIST  TO  THE  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES 
AND  THE  EPISTLES. 

There  were  particular  passes  across  which  the  un- 
known Stranger  carried  them  in  His  coiu^se,  where 
it  seemed  as  if  they  could  scarcely  sustain  the  power 
of  Hght  He  was  flinging  upon  their  souls.     There  were 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     20§ 

mounts  of  spiritual  \ision  they  had  never  climbed 
before,  where  it  seemed  as  if  they  were  caught  up 
into  the  third  heaven  of  glory.  As  He  led  them 
down  from  the  very  first  prediction  in  the  garden 
of  Eden,  through  the  history  of  Abraham,  who  had 
seen  Christ's  day  so  long  before  He  came,  the  trial 
and  issue  of  the  Patriarch's  faith,  in  the  sacrifice 
of  Isaac,  was  one  of  those  summits  of  Hght.  When 
he  came  to  the  death  bed  of  Jacob,  there  was  an- 
other. The  blood  of  the  slain  lamb,  sprinkled  on 
the  door  posts  in  the  Institution  of  the  Passover, 
was  another.  The  lifting  up  of  the  Brazen  Serpent 
in  the  Wilderness  was  another.  He  revealed  the 
meaning  of  the  whole  system  of  sacrifices  and  cere- 
monies; that  ceaseless  shedding  of  blood,  without 
which  there  is  no  remission  of  sins.  He  revealed 
Himself  as  the  Prophet  promised  by  Moses  in  Dent, 
xviii.  15-20,  the  Prophet  like  unto  Moses,  with  God's 
whole  name  and  pardoning  prerogative  in  Him. 

As  the  lightning  at  midnight,  as  the  corona  after 
a  total  echpse,  shining  from  the  east  even  unto  the 
west,  so  were  the  gates  of  this  Apocalypse  of  the 
coming  of  the  Son  of  Man,  to  the  vision  of  these 
disciples.  It  was  as  if  a  photograph  of  every  moun- 
tain and  valley,  every  river  and  forest,  city,  village 
and  hamlet,  all  the  heights  and  depths  in  the  land- 
scape  of  the  world   of  divine   revelation,  had   been 


2o6     God's  Timepiece  for  Alaiis  Eternity. 

suddenly  engraved  within  their  consciousness,  never 
more  to  be  obscured  or  forgotten. 

The  divine  revelation  of  an  atonement  for  sin  and 
an  all-compassionate  mediatorship  betvsreen  God  and 
man,  came  before  the  giving  of  the  Law,  and  was  in- 
deed a  necessity  of  forgiving  mercy,  contemporaneous 
with  the  very  first  act  of  disobedience.  It  was  the 
corner-stone  and  the  Sabbath-perfection,  of  all  soul- 
saving  theology,  in  adoring  gratitude  and  praise.  It 
created  the  walk  of  Enoch  with  God,  and  sustained 
the  triumphant  faith  and  patience  of  Job,  and  insjiired 
through  his  afflictions  those  watchwords  and  fore- 
running beacons  of  an  Eternal  victory  of  faith  out 
of  the  exjjerience  of  Despair; — those  songs  of  the 
dying  Swan  of  Antediluvian  theology  and  prophecy, 
"The  Lord  gave,  the  Lord  hath  taken  away;  and 
blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord." — "Though  He 
slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  Him." — "For  I  know 
that  my  Redeemer  hveth,  and  that  He  shall  stand 
in  the  latter  day  upon  the  earth:  and  though  after 
my  skin  worms  destroy  this  body,  yet  in  my  flesh 
I  shall  see  God." 

The  Redeemer  of  Enoch,  Job,  Moses,  the  Resur 
rection  and  the  Life,  stood  now.  upon. the  earth,  Him- 
self God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  God  raising  the  dead, 
God  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself. 

These  footprints  of  the  primeval  searchings  after 


Gods  Ti7nepiece  for  Majis  Iiteniity.     20^ 

God  and  discoveries  of  Him.  by  penitential  faith 
could  not  have  been  omitted  from  our  Blessed  Lord's 
survey  of  the  Avitnesses  of  divine  inspiration  in  all 
past  ages.  For  the  whole  Book  of  Job  is  an  antici- 
j^atiou  of  the  coming  of  the  Redeemer,  and  the  Res- 
urrection unto  Life  in  Hhn.  The  preaching  of  Elihu, 
Job's  youthful  Consoler  and  friend,  is  the  very  mercy 
and  compassionate  disciphne  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ, 
revealing  unto  men  His  righteousness,  in  their  for- 
giveness and  salvation. 

And  when  our  Lord  entered  on  the  Book  of 
Psalms,  what  surj^rising  revelations!  The  2nd  Psalm 
was  the  foreshadowed  universal  throne  of  the  Mes- 
siah, and  the  proclamation  of  it  by. the  Father:  the 
16th,  Christ's  dominion  over  the  grave,  entering  the 
prison  of  its  gloom  for  us,  and  for  us  rising  again: 
the  110th,  His  supreme  Lordship  and  Priesthood, 
after  the  order  of  Melchizedek.  The  22nd  opened 
with  our  Lord's  own  dying  exclamation.  My  God! 
My  God!  Why  hast  Thou  forsaken  me!  The  69th 
described  as  in  jDrophetic  history,  the  very  circum- 
stances of  His  sufferings. 

And  all  this  minuteness  of  prediction,  so  often  ob- 
jected against  by  critics  after  the  fashion  of  Por- 
phjTy,  as  being  incredible, — this  divine  characteristic 
of  inspiration,  was  maintained  as  such  by  oiu'  Lord 
from  the  beginning,  both  in  history  and  prophecy. 


2o8     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

So  that,  on  the  one  hand,  as  His  own  Interpreter, 
He  showed  to  the  disciples  the  glory  of  Christ  in 
Isaiah  as  the  giory  of  Jehovah,  when  the  great 
Projihet  saw  His  glory  and  spake  of  Him;  and  on 
the  other,  His  humiliation  and  His  d^dng  blood,  as 
the  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world: 
and  both  were  demonstrated  with  a  microscopic  and 
telescopic  power  and  clearness,  equally  impossible 
ever  to  have  been  forged  or  imagined. 

Indeed,  the  whole  earth  had  been  seeded  with 
prophecies  and  ^^reparations  of  His  coming,  as  demon- 
strated in  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  They  were 
held  as  divine  germs  for  development  in  the  bosom- 
of  empires,  as  well  as  in  the  Jewish  institutes,  even 
till  the  subsoil  plough  of  God's  mighty  j)rovidences 
should  bring  them  forth  to  light  and  demonstration. 
All  the  grand  disciplinary  methods  of  God's  govern- 
ment among  the  nations,  the  stupendous  eras  of  his- 
tory, the  ideal  and  eternal  truths  that  alone  could 
lay  the  foundations  of  a  holy  society,  the  tides  of 
thought  and  feeling,  convincing,  instructing,  new- 
creating  : 

« '  The  vast  successive  thoughts, 

That  all  the  nations  sway, 
As  billows  o'er  the  deep, 

In  thunder  rolled  away." 

And  then,  the  night-visions  of  Daniel,  the  setting  of 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     2og 

the  judgment,  and  the  opening  of  the  Books  before 
the  Ancient  of  days,  and  the  coming  of  One  like  the 
Son  of  Man  with  the  clouds  of  Heaven,  and  the  do- 
minion given  Him,  the  glory  and  kingdom,  that  all 
people,  nations,  and  languages  should  serve  Him:  His 
dominion  an  everlasting  kingdom  which  shall  not  pass 
away,  and  His  kingdom  even  that  of  the  Saints  of  the 
Most  High,  who  shall  take  and  possess  the  kingdom 
forever,  even  forever  and  ever. 

But  in  comparison  with  this  sublime  description  of 
the  High  and  Holy  One  inhabiting  Eternity,  how  in- 
evitable for  our  Blessed  Lord  to  dwell  upon  the 
depths  of  His  own  humiliation  and  sufferings  for  the 
sins  of  the  whole  world.  So  then  especially  in  cor- 
recting the  prejudices  and  guiding  the  minds  of  His 
future  preachers,  our  Lord  would  fasten  their  atten- 
tion upon  the  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah:  "Who 
hath  believed  our  report,  and  to  whom  hath  the  arm 
of  the  Lord  been  revealed  ?  "  Oh  wonderful  portrait- 
ure by  the  SpirilJ*of  Christ  so  many  ages  beforehand, 
when  it  testified  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  the 
glory  that  should  follow. 

"Despised  and  rejected  of  men,  the  Man  of  sorrows, 
and  acquainted  with  grief.  Siirely  He  hath  borne  our 
griefs,  and  carried  our  sorrows:  yet  we  did  esteem 
Him  stricken,  smitten  of  God  and  afflicted.  But  He 
was  wounded  for  our  transgressions.  He  was  bruised 


210     Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

for  our  iniquities;  the  cliastisement  of  our  jDeace  was 
upon  Him,  and  with  His  stripes  we  are  healed.  All 
we  like  sheep  have  gone  astray;  we  have  turned  every- 
one to  his  own  way,  and  the  Lord  hath  laid  on  Him 
the  iniquity  of  us  all.  -He  is  brought  as  a  lamb  to 
the  slaughter.  He  was  cut  off  out  of  the  land  of  the 
living;  for  the  transgression  of  my  peoj^le  was  He 
stricken.  And  He  made  His  grave  with  the  wicked, 
and  with  the  rich  in  His  death.  When  thou  shalt 
make  His  soul  an  offering  for  sin.  He  shall  see  His 
seed,  He  shall  prolong  His  days,  and  the  jjleasure  of 
the  Lord  shall  prosper  in  His  hand.  He  shall  see  of 
the  travail  of  His  soul  and  be  satisfied ;  by  His  knowl- 
edge shall  my  righteous  servant  justify  many,  for  He 
shall  bear  then*  iniquities.  Therefore  He  shall  divide 
the  spoil  with  the  strong,  because  He  hath  poured  out 
His  soul  unto  death,  and  He  was  numbered  with  the 
transgressors;  and  He  bare  the  sin  of  many,  and 
made  intercession  for  the  transgressors." 

Wonderful,  minute,  demonstrative,  unanswerable 
history  beforehand,  of  the  infinite  whole  mystery  of 
the  Incarnation !  And  now  the  whole  divine  process 
so  impossible  in  the  view  of  an  unbelieving  rationalism, 
is  completed  by  the  sight  and  sensible  appearance  and 
indwelling  of  the  despised,  crucified,  buried,  risen. 
Almighty  Redeemer,  forever  interceding  at  the  right 
hand  of  the  Majesty  on  high. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Ma7is  Eternity.    211 

As  He  prayed  for  Peter  before  His  death,  and  for 
His  betrayers  and  murderers  in  d^dng,  even  so,  of 
old,  the  prayers  of  Intercession  for  tlie  pardon  of  tbe 
guilty,  the  fore-gleams  of  a  divine  Mediatorship,  as 
in  the  j)rototypical  examples  of  Moses  and  David 
and  Samuel,  and  of  Solomon  in  the  dedication  of  the 
Temple  with  its  Mercy-seat,  and  of  Noah,  Daniel  and 
Job,  had  been  a  divinely  characteristic  and  most  mer- 
ciful feature  of  salvation,  even  before  the  publication 
of  the  Decalogue,  with  the  Sabbath  of  a  believing 
worship  centralized  in  it.  With  this  were  bound  up, 
and  wreathed  around  it,  in  cu-cles  of  forgiving  mercy, 
all  the  allusions  to  G-od's  never-faihng  riches  of  long- 
suffering  love  in  the  gift  of  His  only  Son  to  die  for 
sinners.  All  these  j)erpetual  magnetisms  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  Word  of  God,  drawing  us  to  Himself, 
and  in  the  methods  of  His  disciphne,  were  noted  in 
their  connections. 

The  prayer  of  the  soul  forsaken  of  God  in  the  22nd 
Psalm,  was  followed  by  "  The  Lord  is  my  Shepherd, 
I  shall  not  want,"  in  the  pastoral  23rd;  and  the  102nd 
w^as  codiciled  by  the  103rd;  and  the  69th  sui^plement- 
ed  by  the  71st  and  72nd.  And  all  these  particulars  in 
the  Covenant  of  forgiveness,  the  word  of  God's  mercy 
which  He  commanded  to  a  thousand  generations,  and 
confirmed  the  same  for  an  everlasting  covenant,  or- 
dered in  all  things  and  sure,  were  postulated  for  be- 


212     God's  Tunepiece for  Mans  Eternity. 

lief,  till  God  manifested  in  the  flesh  should  appear, 
the  gracious  Testator  and  Executor  of  the  Whole  in 
One. 

"  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye  My  people  saith  youk  God. 
Say  unto  the  cities  of  Judah,  Behold  your  God  !  And 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  shall  be  revealed,  and  all 
flesh  shall  see  it  together.  He  shall  feed  His  flock 
like  a  Shepherd:  He  shall  gather  the  lambs  with 
His  arm,  and  carry  them  in  His  bosom,  and  gently 
lead  those  that  are  with  young.  Thy  God  sh^vll  do 
THIS.  He  giveth  power  to  the  faint,  and  to  them  that 
have  no  might  He  increaseth  strength.  They  that 
wait  upon  the  Lord  shall  renew  their  strength. 
They  shall  mount  up  on  wings  as  eagles.  They  shall 
run  and  not  be  weary,  they  shall  walk  and  not  faint." 

There  was  nothing  in  all  these  amazing  delineations 
of  the  mercy  of  an  Almighty  Saviour  that  Christ  did 
not  make  to  pass  before  vision  of  those  favored  dis- 
ciples, admitted  to  look  through  the  telescope  of  an 
instructed  faith  at  these  Messianic  Nebulse  of  His  for- 
giving love.  The  baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
with  fire  was  in  all  these  revelations.  It  was  the  fire 
of  divine  love,  and  all  the  dear  affectionate  attractive 
pictures  of  the  Shepherd  of  Israel  and  His  tender 
watchfulness  over  the  lambs  of  His  flock,  leading  them 
in  green  pastures  and  by  still  waters,  till  the  travail  of 
His  soul  should  be  satisfied,  when  all  the  families  of 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     21  j 

mankind  slioukl  be  gathered  in  one  fold,  under  One 
Shepherd,  were  illuminated  forever. 

In  the  23rd  chajDter  of  Jeremiah,  as  they  followed 
the  trans^Darent  explanations  of  their  Divine  Instructor, 
they  beheld,  growing,  "the  Eighteous  Branch  of  David, 
the  King  that  should  reign  and  jDrosper,  and  execute 
judgment  and  justice  in  the  earth.  In  His  days  Judah 
shall  be  saved,  and  this  is  the  name  whereby  He  shall 
be  called,  The  Lord  our  Righteousness."  And  in  Jer. 
xxxi.,  God's  covenant  with  the  whole  house  of  Israel, 
writing  His  laAV  in  their  hearts,  forgiving  their  iniquity 
and  remembering  their  sin  no  more;  also  the  same  in 
chapter  xxxiii.  8-26.  Nothing  could  be  more  com- 
prehensive and  explicit,  nothing  more  divinely  glo- 
rious. 

Then  again,  Ezekiel  xxxiv.  23,  "And  I  wiU  set  up 
one  Shepherd  over  them,  and  he  shall  feed  them, 
and  I  the  Lord  will  be  their  God.  And  I  wiU  raise 
up  for  them  a  plant  of  renown.  Thus  shall  they  know 
that  I,  the  Lord  their  God,  am  with  them,  and  they, 
the  house  of  Israel,  are  My  people,  saith  the  Lord. 
And  ye.  My  flock,  the  flock  of  My  pasture,  men,  and  I 
your  God,  saith  the  Lord."  Then  Ezekiel  xxxvi.  25,  26: 
"  Then  will  I  sprinkle  clean  water  upon  you,  and  ye 
shall  be  clean ;  from  all  your  filthiness  and  from  all 
your  idols  wiU  I  cleanse  you.  A  new  heart  also  will 
I  give  you,  and  a  new  spirit  will  I  put  within  you 


21^     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

and  ye  shall  be  My  peoj)le,  and  I  will  be  yoiu* 
God." 

Then  the  great  resurrection  chapter,  xxxvii.  13,  14: 
"Ye  shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord,  when  I  shall 
have  ojDened  your  graves,  O  My  people,  and  brought 
you  up  out  of  your  graves,  and  put  My  Spirit  in  you, 
and  ye  shall  live;  one  fold,  one  ShejDherd.  My  cov- 
enant of  peace  shall  be  with  them :  it  shall  be  an 
everlasting  covenant  with  them.  My  tabernacle  also 
shall  be  with  them;  yea,  I  will  be  theu'  God,  and 
they  shall  be  My  people.  And  the  nations  shall  know 
that  I  the  Lord  do  sanctify  Israel,  when  My  sanc- 
tuary shall  be  in  the  midst  of  them  for  evermore." 

The  angel  of  the  covenant  was  there;  and  in  all 
the  afflictions  of  His  people,  He  was  afflicted,  and  the 
angel  of  His  presence  saved  them;  in  His  love  and 
in  His  pity  He  redeemed  them;  and  He  bare  them 
and  carried  them  aU  the  days  of  old;  Thou  O 
Lord,  our  Father,  our  Redeemer,  Thy  name  from 
everlasting.  There  is  no  more  doubt  as  to  the  trains 
of  exposition  by  our  Lord,  and  the  method  of  His 
tracing  the  course  of  His  own  life  and  divine  nature 
as  the  Redeemer  of  mankind,  than  there  can  be  as 
to  the  texts  which  He  chose  from  the  prophets  Isaiah 
and  Micah  for  His  first  and  His  latest  sermons.  No 
doubt  He  took  those  amazed  disciples  to  the  moun- 
tains of  Midian   to  behold  in  the  vision  of  Balaam 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    21^ 

tlie  Star  out  of  Jacob  and  the  Scejitre  out  of  Israel, 
and  to  hear  and  understand,  as  never  before,  the 
question,  "Who  can  count  the  dust  of  Jacob,  and 
the  number  of  the  fourth  part  of  Israel?  Let  me 
die  the  death  of  the  righteous,  and  let  my  last  end 
be  like  His." 

And  Isaiah's  vision,  in  the  year  that  King  Uzziah 
died !  Who  but  Christ,  in  the  vp^ay  to  Emmaus,  could 
have  revealed  to  those  sorrowing  discijoles,  that  it 
was  the  Lord  Jesus  Himself,  whose  goings  forth  were 
from  everlasting,  that  sent  the  prophet  on  His  mission 
of  mercy,  having  first  taken  away  his  iniquity  and 
purged  his  sin.  He  that  took  for  His  first  sermon 
on  earth  that  .divinely  compassionate  passage,  "  The 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is  upon  me,  to  bind  up  the  bro- 
ken-hearted, to  proclaim  libei-ty  to  the  captives,  and  the 
opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound;  that  they 
might  be  called  Trees  of  Righteousness,  the  planting 
of  the  Lord,  that  He  might  be  glorified."  "These 
things  said  Esaias,  when  he  saw  His  glory  and  spake 
of  Him."  Christ  Himself  and  no  other  Being  was  the 
expositor  to  these  disciples  of  His  own  Autobiography 
from  eternity. 

But  this  exposition  itself  was  only  as  an  index  or 
table  of  contents,  according  to  which  the  discijDles 
now,  looking  back  and  remembering  all  the  words 
of  our  Lord,  could  gather  up  and  connect  the  whole 


2i6     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity, 

train  of  events  and  teachings  with  the  conclusion. 
Let  any  man  read  the  8th,  9th,  10th,  11th,  and  12th 
chapters  of  John's  Gospel,  and  consider  the  terrible- 
ness  of  our  Lord's  denunciations  against  the  unbehev- 
ing  Jews,  whom  He  styled  murderers  and  liars,  like 
their  father  the  devil,  and  compare  and  contrast  those 
dreadful  accusations  with  the  assurance  they  all. 
thought  they  had,  by  the  very  covenant  of  circum- 
cision, of  their  being  the  children  of  Abraham;  and 
he  wiU  cease  to  be  astonished  either  at  the  wrath  of 
our  Lord's  enemies,  or  the  uninterrupted  blindness 
of  his  friends. 

It  is  not  much  to  be  wondered  at,  that  after  all 
these  discourses,  and  the  declaration  of  our  Lord, 
before  Abraham  ivas,  I  am,  the  Jews  took  up  stones 
again  to  stone  Him.  The  wonder  rather  is  that  for 
three  years  or  more,  our  Lord  coidd  have  continued 
such  sermons,  with  incessant  and  accumulating  proofs 
of  His  divine  Messiahship;  and  that  the  rulers  of 
the  Jewish  Hierarchy,  seeing  and  knowing  that  their 
jDower,  and  the  very  continued  existence  of  the  temple 
and  the  nation,  were  imperilled  by  such  truth  and  such 
miracles,  should  not  sooner  have  put  Him  to  death. 

But  how  then  coiJd  the  Scriptures  have  been  ful- 
filled? How  could  the  education  and  discipline  of 
His  disciples  have  been  completed,  and  the  founda- 
tions of  His  Church  settled,  in  divine  suffering  and 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Alans  Eternity.     21  j 

.. » 

love,  in  the  apostleshijo  of  witnesses  and  expounders 
of  His  doctrines  and  His  death  ? 

A  premature  explosion  by  the  passions  of  His 
enemies  was  restrained,  as  by  divine  safety-valves, 
until  the  whole  people  of  Judea  should  become  so 
imbued  with  the  knowledge  of  His  character,  His 
words  and  His  miracles,  that  immediately  after  His 
resurrection,  they  should  beheve  by  thousands,  and 
would  bear  out  and  justify  the  bold  and  fiery  sermons 
of  Peter  and  John,  and  the  arraignment  of  the  High 
Priest  and  the  rulers,  as  having  been  themselves  the 
murderers  of  the  Messiah,  and  thus  the  uninten- 
tional instruments  of  God's  own  fulfilment  of  all  those 
things  which  He  had  before  showed  by  the  mouth  of 
all  His  holy  jDrophets,  that  Christ  should  suffer. 

Then  again  in  Hosea  and  Micah,  Joel  and  Jonah, 
Zechariah  and  Malachi,  and  the  historic  as  well  as 
the  prophetic  Hebrew  Books,  He  traced  the  outlines 
of  His  own  predestined  humihations  and  sufferings, 
death  and  glory,  the  cross  and  the  crown,  the  inheri- 
tance of  Him,  and  for  Him,  whose  coming  was  to  be 
"the  Desire  of  Nations."  "Eejoice  greatly,  O  daugh- 
ter of  Zion;  shout,  O  daughter  of  Jerusalem!  Behold, 
thy  King  cometh  unto  thee:  He  is  just  and  having 
salvation:  lowly  and  riding  uj)on  an  ass,  and  a  colt, 
the  foal  of  an  ass."  He  showed  them  the  thirty  pieces 
of  silver,   the   price  at  which  He  was  valued,  when 


2i8     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

• 

betrayed.  He  showed  tliem  how  they  should  look 
on  Him  whom  they  had  pierced,  and  how  the  Sjiirit 
of  grace  and  supj)lications  should  be  poured  upon 
them;  and  every  family  and  tribe  be  blest  with  that 
penitential  and  believing  baptism,  till  the  prayers  of 
David  the  son  of  Jesse,  should  be  ended. 

And  thus  he  passed  down  throu^gh  the  minor 
pro]3hets,  to  the  last  great  predictions  of  His  com- 
ing, and  the  Messenger  to  prepare  His  way,  and  the 
purification  of  the  sons  of  Levi,  and  the  coming  of 
Elijah  the  prophet,  that  the  heart  of  the  fathers  might 
be  turned  again  to  the  children,  and  of  the  children 
to  the  fathers.  How  divinely  clear,  how  ravishingly 
bright,  did  ever^'thing  appear  beneath  His  teachings ! 
In  truth,  the  abundance  of  the  revelations  was  such, 
that  our  Lord  must  have  communicated,  along  with 
them,  an  apportioned  power  of  comprehension,  a 
supernatural  illumination  of  their  intellects.  It  was 
Just  such  as  on  the  evening  of  the  same  day  He 
bestowed  upon  all  the  discij)les,  when  He  oj)ened 
their  understandings  to  understand  the  Scriptures. 
The  veil  was  removed,  the  darkness  swept  away,  and 
everywhere  they  beheld  the  Saviour's  glory,  and  the 
Word  speaking  of  Him.  Everywhere,  in  aU  their 
preaching  ever  afterwards  they  knew  that  they  had 
the  mind  of  Christ. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity.    2ig 


XXVII. 

rOWER  OF  THE  GREAT  PERSONAL  REVELATION  AFTER 
THIS  SURVEY— THE  DIVINE  PREPARATION  FOR  IT, 
THE  ETERNAL  ASSURANCE  AND  BLESSEDNESS  OF 
IT— THE  INFINITE  PRIVILEGE  AND  HAPPINESS  OF 
THE  MINISTRY  OF  SUFFERING  LOVE. 

In  the  midst  of  such  conversation,  they  drew  near 
to  their  abode.  It  does  not  appear  that  they  had 
any  susj^icion  who  this  wonderful  Stranger  really  was, 
though  He  was  making  their  hearts  burn  within  them 
every  step  of  the  way  by  His  exposition  of  the  Word 
of  God.  His  theme  was  the  dearest  of  aU  themes, 
and  they  loved  Him  for  the  interest  He  took  in  it, 
as  well  as  the  wonderful  knowledge  He  possessed  of 
it,  and  the  divine  instruction  and  consolation  He  com- 
municated to  their  minds. 

He  made  as  though  He  would  have  gone  further, 
but  how  could  they  let  Him  go  ?  They  held  him  as 
Jacob  did  of  old,  when  He  said,  Let  me  go,  for  the 
day  breaketh;  and  he  said,  I  will  not  let  Thee  go,  ex- 
cept Thou  bless  me.  Now  He  said,  Let  Me  go,  for 
the  day  declineth;  but  they  said.  Abide  with  us,  for  it 
is  towards  evening,  and  the  day  is  far  spent. 

Towards  evening !  Ah !  it  was  the  morn  of  an  eter- 
nal sunrise,  the  beginning  of  a  day  of  glory  never  to 


220     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

end.  With  affectionate  urgency  they  constrained  Him, 
till  He  entered  their  peaceful  abode,  to  which  indeed 
He  Avas  no  stranger.  "With  joyful  hospitality  they 
made  ready  their  evening  meal,  and  sat  down  to  par- 
take of  it,  still  talking  of  Him,  of  whom  now  they  began 
to  have  such  new,  such  glorious  and  soul-ravishing 
views. 

Singular  enough  it  was,  that  while  their  inward 
sight  had  been  irradiated  to  behold  their  Lord  in 
the  Scriptures,  so  that  now  they  knew  Him  better 
than  ever  before,  their  outward  vision  had  been  so 
holden,  as  not  to  recognize  Him,  though  He  had 
walked  several  miles  with  them,  and  was  even  now 
sitting  with  them  in  personal  bodily  presence  at  meat, 
Perhai^s  our  Lord  chose  this  deeply  interesting  mode 
of  communicating  with  them,  because,  in  such  a  con- 
versation He  could  gain  their  more  undivided  and 
meditative  attention  to  the  truth. 

It  was  the  truth,  and  not  the  person  of  the  Stranger, 
that  was  overcoming  them,  commanding  them,  pos- 
sessing them;  striking  in  their  hearts,  and  chiming, 
like  the  bells  of  the  Holy  City,  hke  voices  out  of  the 
throne,  as  the  sound  of  many  waters;  words  that  were 
as  flames,  as  burning  coals,  as  electric  rainbows,  as 
the  living  creatures  in  Ezekiel's  vision,  running  and 
returning  as  the  appearance  of  a  flash  of  lightning. 
Through     and     throu^^h     their     hearts,     down     into 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    221 

the  thouglits  of  tlieir  souls,  deeper  tlian  conscious- 
ness had  ever  sounded,  and  awakening  thoughts  of 
which  they  could  not  have  deemed  themselves  capa- 
ble, and  feelings  that  they  never  knew  before,  went 
these  words  of  this  calm  but  sympathizing  Stranger, 
taking  their  whole  attention;  words  quick  and  pow- 
erful, and  sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword,  and 
yet  sweeter  than  honey,  and  the  droppings  of  the 
honey-comb,  and  more  refreshing  and  softly  pene- 
trating than  the  dews  of  summer  nights  on  the  bor- 
ders of  the  Lake  of  Galilee. 

The  words  that  they  heard  sank  all  the  deeper  for 
their  previous  deep  sadness;  and  indeed,  in  order 
that  the  truth  might  thus  quietly  and  stealthily  gain 
attention  and  possession,  it  was  as  necessary  that  the 
melancholy  meditative  mood,  in  which  they  set  out 
from  Jerusalem,  and  were  sadly  communing  when 
Jesus  met  them,  should  be  preserved,  as  for  a  plen- 
tiful dew  fall  it  is  necessary  that  the  wind  go  down, 
and  the  night  be  calm  and  cloudless.  Any  whirl- 
wind of  emotion  or  amazement,  as  at  the  supposed 
appearance  of  a  ghost,  or  a  supernatural  being,  would 
1)6  a  fatal  disturbance.  If  at  first  setting  out,  Christ 
had  revealed  Himself  to  them,  and  afterwards  at- 
tempted to  instruct  them,  they  would  have  been  in 
such  a  fever  of  surprise,  agitation,  and  joy,  that  a 
calm  listening  would  have  been  impossible.     But  our 


222     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

Lord   graciously  and  sweetly  j)repared   tbeix'   minds 
for  the  disclosure. 

And  now  they  were  counting  upon  a  continued 
evening  of  just  such  holy  conversation,  and  would 
have  closed  it  with  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures 
and  family  worship  by  their  sacred  guest,  when  sud- 
denly, as  He  takes  the  bread,  and  looks  up  to  heaven, 
they  behold  Him,  just  as  He  sat  with  the  twelve  dis- 
ciples four  days  ago  at  the  institution  of  the  Last 
Supper,  when  He  spake  those  solemn  words,  "This 
is  My  body,  broken  for  you."  Yes !  it  is  He !  the 
same  form,  the  same  holy  countenance,  the  same 
heavenly  gesture !  He  took  bread,  and  blessed,  and 
brake,  and  gave  to  them.  It  is  He !  And  they  knew 
Him,  and  He  vanished  out  of  their  sight.  No  more 
doubt,  no  more  darkness  now !  They  have  seen  the 
risen  Saviour,  and  away  they  fly,  the  same  hour,  to 
Jei'usalem,  to  tell  the  glad  tidings  to  their  fellow  dis- 
ciples. Did  not  Our  hearts  burn  within  us,  while  He 
talked  with  us  by  the  way,  and  while  He  opened  to 
us  the  Scrij^tures  ?  How  is  it  that  we  did  not  know 
Him  before,  that  we  did  not  remember  that  never 
man  spake  like  this  Man? 

Hapj)y  beings,  hajDpy  discij^les!  Thenceforward, 
the  joy  of  the  Lord  was  their  strength,  and  they 
were  transfigured  by  it  from  gloom  to  glory,  even 
as  they  had  been  prepared  for  it,  by  the  grace  of 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     22^ 

God,  tlirougli  their  first  discipline  and  development 
of  love  to  Christ,  and  afterwards  their  hearts  being 
wrung  with  grief  and  anguish  for  His  sake.  "For 
unto  you  it  is  given,  in  the  behaK  of  Christ,  not  only 
to  believe  on  Him,  but  also  to  suffer  for  His  sake." 

This  jDrivilege  of  suffering  for  Christ  was  manifestly 
regarded  as  the  highest  of  all  the  blessings  of  the 
Christian  hfe;  and  this  was  the  greatest  demonstra- 
tion that  human  beings  could  be  capable  of  making 
for  their  divine  Redeemer;  this  confession  of  Him  be- 
fore men  and  angels,  the  world,  the  universe,  friends 
and  enemies,  at  the  cost  of  the  sacrifice  of  everything 
in  this  life  that  men  could  hold  dear.  The  revelation 
was  that  of  infinite  divine  truth,  demonstrated  through 
divine  love,  as  the  ground-work,  purpose  and  method 
of  all  truth. 

Dear  and  blessed,  loving  and  suffering  disciples ! 
As  their  commission  was  in  many  cases,  that  of  a 
living  martyi-dom  for  Christ,  so  the  crown  of  their 
glory  in  His  blessed  service  was  to  be  the  brightest 
that  ever  could  be  worn  by  mortals.  They  were  to 
sit  on  twelve  thrones,  judging  the  twelve  tribes  of 
Israel.  To  them  was  to  be  given  the  glory  of  tui-n- 
ing  many  to  righteousness  by  the  blood  of  the  Lamb 
and  the  word  of  their  testimony;  and  they  were  to 
shine  above  the  brightness  of  the  firmament  forever 
and  ever. 


224     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Etertiity. 

How  wonderful  to  see  that  the  whole  evidence  of 
our  faith  is  passed,  for  its  perfection,  through  the 
medium  both  of  human  and  divine  suffering.  "For 
it  became  Him,  for  whom  are  all  things,  and  by  whom 
are  all  things,  in  bringing  many  sons  unto  glory,  to 
make  the  Caj)tain  of  their  salvation  perfect  through 
sufferings."  And  so  with  His  own  ministers,  and  sj)ir- 
itual  soldiers,  so  that  the  whole  evidence  of  divine 
inspiration  from  Genesis  to  Revelation  jjasses  through 
the  anguish  of  prophets  and  ai:)0stles;  passes  through 
agonized  and  bleeding  hearts,  and  throvigh  the  wrath 
of  men  and  nations  made  to  praise  God,  and  through 
demoniac  natures  subdued  by  redeeming  grace,  and 
brought  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  the  author  and 
finisher  of  faith.  Nothing  is  left  to  mere  theory  or 
conjecture,  but  all  is  divinely  experimental. 

And  so  we  learn  b}'  heart  the  truths  for  our  life, 
without  which  we  know  nothing  but  death; — we  learn 
and  know  them  in  and  for  ourselves,  just  only  in 
proportion  as  we  learn  them  from  God  in  Chiist,  and 
employ  and  teach  them  in  His  love  for  God  and  our 
fellow  creatures.  Thus  God  benevolently  makes  all 
regenerated  men  fellow  workers  with  the  Redeemer 
in  working  out  their  own  salvation,  through  the  power 
that  worketh  in  them  to  wUl  and  to  do;  learning  and 
understanding,  by  believing,  loving,  acting.  Doubtless 
all  the  apostles  learned  for  themselves  as  much  as 


God's  Ti7nepiece  fo7^  Alaiis  Eternity.     22^ 

they  tauglit  others,  by  wi-iting  their  own  ejiistles;  for 
they  wrote,  possessed  by  the  Spirit,  and  raised  above 
self,  out  of  the  fulness  and  self-forgetfulness  of  divine 
love ;  as  for  example  the  Epistles  of  Paul,  Peter,  and 
John,  an  outpouring  of  truths  profound  beyond  all 
possibility  of  the  human  mind  to  have  discovered; 
but  written  out,  in  order  that  men  dead  in  trespasses 
and  sins  may  come  to  life;  written  out  of  their  o-wn 
hearts'  blood,  with  compassion  and  weeping  and  joy, 
that  all  the  disciples  might,  young  and  old,  be  pre- 
sented before  God  faultless  in  Christ;  and  might  even 
in  this  world  rejoice  and  be  made  steadfast  in  Him, 
and  know  what  is  the  hope  of  His  calling,  and  what 
the  riches  of  the  glory  of  His  inheritance  in  the  saints. 


XXYIII. 

GOD'S  METHOD  OF  DEMONSTRATION,  PERSONAL,  EX- 
PERIMENTAL, AND  CONSONANT  WITH  OUR  NATURE 
—GOD'S  ETERNAL  NATURE  BEING  LOVE,  THERE  IS 
NO  OTHER  POSSIBLE  WAY  OF  KNOWING  HIM,  THAN 
THAT  OF  LOVING  HIM— THAT  LOVE  KNOWN  ONLY 
IN  CHRIST,  AND  IN  THE  SCRIPTURES  CONCERNING 
HIM. 

"  For  God  hath  shined  in  our  hearts,  to  give  the  Hght 
of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of 
Jesus  Christ."     Hath  shined  in  our  hearts,  and  so, 


226     God's  Tiinepiece  for  Mmis  Eternity. 

I)}'  the  very  laws  of  human  nature,  hath  made  the 
hearts  thus  illumined  and  filled  with  gloiy  and  power, 
the  attractive  magnets  to  aU  other  hearts,  by  the  in- 
dwelling and  example  of  such  j)ower.  "I  beseech 
thee,"  said  IMoses,  "  show  me  Thy  glory,"  when  this 
revelation  was  beginning  among  men.  If  Thou  hast 
ai:»pointed  me  to  speak  of  Thee  and  for  Thee,  show  me 
Thy  glory,  that  I  may  speak  u'resistibly,  convincingly, 
attractively,  all  that  which  I  have  seen,  and  may 
testify  that  which  I  have  known.  And  such  was  the 
watch-Avord  of  Paul's  power,  "I  know  whom  I  have 
believed,  and  that  He  loved  me,  and  gave  Himself  tor 

ME." 

God's  method  of  demonstration  is  thus  always  that 
of  love.  How  coincident  with  our  nature,  how  ap- 
propriate to  the  foundations  of  beHef,  and  to  the 
ring-bolts  wrought  in  our  intellectual  and  moral 
constitution,  on  which  the  truth  might  lay  hold,  to 
draw  us  up  to  God ! 

This  may  be  seen,  it  had  been  already  seen,  even 
when  Christ  came,  in  the  influence  exerted  by 
Plato's  writings  concerning  Socrates.  "We  believe 
that  there  was  such  a  personage  as  Socrates  once 
teaching  in  the  world,  attracting  disciples,  and  mold- 
ing their  characters  on  his  own,  more  by  the  dis- 
courses give  in  Plato's  dialogues,  and  by  the  sym- 
pathy and  love  there  manifested,  than  by  any  other 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     22J 

demonstration.  No  man  could  ever  be  persuaded 
that  this  account  was  a  mere  fiction.  Let  such  a 
fabuhst  as  Strauss  try  his  wit  upon  it.  It  is  quite 
impossible  that  such  a  myth  could  have  been  in- 
vented, or  could  have  grown  by  natural  selection 
or  evolution. 

And  so  the  gospels  hold  mankind  by  an  irresistible 
demonstration,  the  power  of  which  will  be  felt  and 
acknowledged  as  long  as  the  world  stands,  renewed 
as  long  as  the  gospels  are  pubUshed.  And  they  are 
the  Word  of  God  that  liveth  and  abideth  forever. 

So  Ave  are  held  to  .God,  brought  back  to  God 
from  our  ignorance  and  disobedience,  relegated  by 
this  true  divine  religion  of  the  personality  of  God 
in  Christ  Jesus;  to  be  made  like  Him,  by  seeing 
and  knowing  Him  as  He  is,  and  not  by  silent  wor- 
ship of  the  Unknown  and  Unknowable.  "But  as 
He  who  hath  called  you  is  holy,  so  be  ye  holy,  in 
all  manner  of  conversation,  because  it  is  written, 
Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy.  And  if  ye  call  on  the 
Father  (and  such  return  unto  Him  and  true  wor- 
ship of  Him,  and  renewal  of  the  soul  in  His  likeness, 
is  not  possible  but  by  prayer  and  faith,  which  is  the 
soul's  true  calling  on  God),  pass  the  time  of  your  so- 
journing here  in  fear;  forasmuch  as  ye  know  that  ye 
were  not  redeemed  with  corruptible  things,  as  silver 
and  gold,  from  your  vain  conversation  received  by 


228     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

tradition  from  your  fathers,  but  with  the  'precious 
Uood  of  Christ,  as  of  a  Lamb  without  blemish  and 
without  spot.  "Who  verily  was  foreordained  before 
the  foundation  of  the  world,  but  was  manifest  in 
these  last  times  for  you,  lolio  by  Him  do  believe  in 
God,  that  raised  Him  up  from  the  dead  and  gave  Him 
glory;  that  your  faith  and  hope  might  be  in  God. 
Seeing  ye  have  purified  your  souls  in  obeying  the 
truth  through  the  Sj)irit  unto  unfeigned  love  of  the 
brethren,  see  that  ye  love  one  another  with  a  pure 
heart  fervently;  being  born  again,  not  of  corrup- 
tible seed,  but  of  incorruptible,  by  the  Word  of 
God  that  liveth  and  abideth  forever.  And  this  is 
the  "Word  which  by  the  Gospel  is  preached  unto 
you."     And  the  beginning  and  the  end  are  Love. 

And  so,  "  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh,"  and  in 
all  the  most  intimate  conjunctures  between  our  souls 
and  bodies,  being  so  manifested,  is  known  as  the 
object  of  a  reasonable  faith,  disclosed  to  us  by  and 
through  the  structure  and  workings  of  our  own 
personal  existence;  sympathizing  with  us,  and  in 
this  compassionate  and  loving  humiliation  of  the 
divine  nature  on  earth,  under  the  vestvu'e  of  our 
humanity,  ju.stified  in  the  SiDirit,  seen  of  angels, 
preached  unto  the  Gentiles,  believed  on  in  the 
World,  received  up  into  glory.  Faith,  sight,  sense, 
reasoning,    experience,    all   appealed   to,   all   satisfied 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    22g 

and  fulfilled  in  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  that  we 
might  be  filled  with  aU  the  fulness  of  God. 

Now  then,  full  in  the  face  of  the  arrogant  pro- 
nouncement of  philosophers  that  Grod  cannot  be 
manifested,  but  is  forever  unknown  and  unknow- 
able, there  shoots  forth  as  the  hghtning  the  sen- 
tence   that    God    was    manifest    in    the    flesh,    and 

DWELT    AMONG  US,  AND    WE    BEHELD    HiS  GLORY.       "  For  the 

life  was  manifested,  and  we  have  seen  it,  and  bear 
witness,  and  show  unto  you  that  eternal  life,  which 
was  with  the  Father,  and  was  manifested  unto  us;" 
manifested  in  the  flesh,  in  order  to  be  justified  in 
the  Spirit,  in  order  to  be  seen  of  angels,  ("and 
when  He  bringeth  in  the  first-born  into  the  world 
He  saith.  Let  aU  the  angels  of  God  worship  Him "), 
in  order  to  be  preached  unto  the  Gentiles,  in  order 
to  be  believed  on  in  the  world,  and  then,  when  re- 
ceived up  into  glory,  to  be  the  "Head  over  aU 
things  to  the  chru'ch,  which  is  His  body,  the  ful- 
ness of  Him  that  filleth  all  in  all." 

Him  that  filleth  all  in  all!  And  so  He  who  was 
the  Word  made  flesh,  the  Word  in  this  incarnate 
divine  personality,  must  expound  the  prophecies  in 
those  inspii'ed  documents  that  had  foreshadowed  His 
coming,  in  order  that  men,  when  He  came  for  their 
salvation,  might  believe; — He  must  expound  to  His 
witnesses,    as   the    appointed    teachers    of    mankind, 


2 JO     God's  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity. 

"In  all  the  Scriptukes,  the  things  conceening  Him- 
self." 

In  this  designation  oi'  proposition  we  have  there- 
fore arrived  at  the  great  centre  of  thought,  signifi- 
cance, and  argument;  the  great  hinge  and  stand- 
point of  aU  divine  revelation;  its  whole  object  and 
importance.  The  things  conceening  Himself.  This 
is  our  central  sun;  here  the  light  shines  and  hither 
the  whole  universe  of  truth  and  being  gravitates. 
How  mighty  is  this  sentence,  as  comprehending  all 
the  apj)ointed  j^athway  of  the  Scriptures  of  God, 
the  purpose  of  God  in  them,  their  infinite  worth 
and  infallible  certainty;  all  that  needed  to  be 
known  for  the  accomplishment  of  God's  designs  for 
human  salvation.  The  things  conceening  Himself. 
It  is  like  the  great  sentence.  It  is  written,  with 
which,  in  the  opening  of  His  ministry,  Christ  con- 
fronted and  confounded  Satan  in  the  wilderness. 
And  here,  at  the  close  of  His  ministry,  in  commit- 
ting its  continuance  and  comj^letion  to  the  hands 
of  His  disciples,  The  things  conceening  Himself. 

For  this  was  their  stewardsliijj  with  divine  truth, 
their  wholesale  commission  business  on  earth,  Christ 
and  Him  crucified.  This  was  what  made  the  Scriptures 
interesting.  This  was  what  gave  them  their  power. 
The  importance  of  the  Old  Testament  as  well  as  of  the 
New  consists  in  its  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ.     Noth- 


God's  Timepiece foi''  Mans  Eternity.    2ji 

ing  else  in  it  was  made  the  subject  of  exposition  by 
our  Blessed  Lord  to  the  two  favored  disciples.  Ex- 
ternal things  were  all  passed  by,  the  traditions  of  the 
elders,  and  the  learned  rubbish  of  the  synagogues, 
cabbala,  and  mysteries,  philosophy  and  speculation. 
Beginning  at  Moses  and  all  the  prophets  He  ex- 
pounded unto  them  in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things  con- 
cerning Himself. 


XXIX. 

NATURE  OF  THE  SWEEP  OF  THIS  PROPOSITION  — 
CHRIST  ESTABLISHED  IT  WHILE  HIMSELF  ON 
EARTH,  SO  THAT  THERE  SHOULD  BE  NO  DIS- 
PUTING OF  IT,  NO  ATTEMPTS  AT  THE  BREAKING 
OF  THE  WILL,  NO  CASE  IN  CHANCERY,  NO  COUN- 
CILS—THE WHOLE  VOLUME,  AND  ITS  DOCUMENTS, 
GOD'S  VOUCHERS,  AND  HIS  ALONE. 

Now  there  are  these  two  considerations, — first,  the 
clean  sweep  of  this  proposition,  its  thoroughness,  de- 
cisiveness,— all  the  Scriptures;  second,  Christ  did  this 
Himself,  while  He  was  yet  on  earth,  and  would  not  leave 
it  to  an  after  inspiration,  not  even  to  the  mission  of 
the  Comforter,  who  was  to  convince  the  world  in  His 
stead,  when  He  should  have  gone  to  the  Father, 
and  no  more  be  seen  or  heard  speaking  among  men. 
There  was  a  divine  order  and  sequence;  a  logic  of  eter- 


2^2     God's  Timepiece  for  Alans  Eternity. 

nal  truth  pursued  by  Him,  who  was  the  Way,  the 
Truth,  and  the  Life ;  Moses  and  the  prophets  first,  and 
all  the  Scriptures,  in  theii-  Hght,  as  God's  hght. 

But  what  are  all  the  Scriptures  ?  Is  there  certainty 
or  uncertainty  here  ?  Is  this  the  infallibility  of  God 
informing  His  creatures,  or  the  fallibility  of  men  com- 
pounded into  the  pretence  of  infallible  history,  by  the 
medium  of  successive  infallible  councils?  Nay,  we 
have  here  the  God  incarnate,  testifying  to  the  Word 
of  God,  the  Creator,  Kevealer,  and  Covenant  Keeper, 
and  Redeemer  of  mankind.  It  is  not  man  but  God, 
who  assures  us  what  be  the  very  words  of  God,  on 
which  we  are  permitted  and  commanded  to  build  our 
faith  in  the  promised  Saviour  of  guilty  lost  men. 

The  Lord  Jesus  Christ  had  made  His  will  before 
His  death,  in  regard  to  His  own  kingdom,  as  the  king- 
dom of  His  Father;  and  now  He  was  Himself  its  sole 
Interpreter  and  Executor,  after  rising  fi'om  the  dead, 
and  before  ascending  to  His  Father.  What  that  will, 
as  the  will  of  His  Father,  was.  He  had  made  absolutely 
sure  for  aU  generations;  and  now  the  probating  of  it, 
and  the  administration.  He  made  equally  clear  and  ex- 
plicit. The  Scriptures  of  that  will  were  known  as  the 
Oracles  of  God  committed  to  the  Jews  alone  as  the 
keepers  of  them  for  mankind.  There  were  no  other 
oracles  ever  delivered  from  God  to  man;  "And  what- 
soever things  were  written  before  the  coming  of  Christ 


God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eteriiity.     2jj 

were  written  for  our  learning,  that  we  through  patience 
and  comfort  of  the  Scrij)tures  might  have  hope." 

Could  there  have  been  any  doubt  as  to  that  "  xoliat- 
soever,"  the  very  first  thing  the  Divine  Messenger  from 
God,  the  Messenger  of  the  covenant  of  life  and  peace 
from  Him,  must  do,  would  be  to  clear  it  up.  The  so- 
lution of  it  would  be  the  very  first  exercise  of  God's 
truth  and  goodness.  If  ever  the  promised  Messiah 
came  to  do  the  will  of  God,  it  was  not  only  to  be  ex- 
pected, but  infinitely  certain,  that  this  exposition  and 
proof  of  that  will  would  be  made  as  sure  as  the  cove- 
nant itself  forever  settled  in  heaven.  This  must  have 
been  one  of  the  things  that  the  Saviour  would  do  in 
the  world  and  for  the  world,  before  He  left  the  world 
to  return  to  His  Father.  When  He  prayed  God  for 
His  disciples,  "  Sanctify  them  by  Thy  truth,"  and  di- 
rected them  to  study  thai  truth,  for  their  sanctification, 
He  would  not  leave  them  ignorant  or  uncertain  what 
really  luas  that  truth  to  which  He  referred  them  as  the  very 
Word  of  God.  This  is  our  security;  and  this  would  be 
enough,  if  we  had  no  other,  or  none  marginal  or  ad- 
ditional; but  we  have.  There  is  at  the  same  time  a 
wondrous  combuaation  and  harmony  of  witnesses  hu- 
man and  divine,  inspired,  and  also  uninspired,  but  or- 
dinarily or  humanly  historical;  along  with  a  chain  of 
events  and  providences,  bearing  upon  themselves 
God's  seals,  for  our  deliverance  from  doubts,  that  oth- 


2J4     Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

erwise  here  at  the  very  foundation  of  our  faith  might 
trouble  us. 

We  have  the  Word  of  God,  the  only  divine  revela- 
tion then  upon  earth,  as  by  testimony  of  Christ,  then 
already  written,  in  a  volume;  then  so  absolutely  known, 
so  received  and  relied  uj)on,  that  he  could  reason 
from  it  as  an  undisputed,  sure,  acknowledged  quan- 
tity. We  have  this  volume,  as  translated  from  the  He- 
brew into  the  Greek,  some  centuries  before  Christ 
came  Himself  to  appeal  to  it  as  "the  volume  of  the 
Book  written  of  Him"  We  have  the  evidence  and 
the  date  of  such  translation  in  the  works  of  journal- 
ists, philosophers  and  historians,  such  as  PhUo  and 
Josephus;  historians  as  credible  as  any  on  whose 
books  or  records  the  world  of  believers  in  human 
history  ever  built  their  faith  in  the  existence  of 
Alexander  the  Great,  or  the  Commentaries  of  Julius 
Csesar. 

It  was  this  known  volume  of  writings,  to  which 
Christ  referred  and  appealed,  and  which  He  charged 
the  Jews  with  disobeying,  and  in  some  cases  nulU- 
fying  by  theu'  own  added  traditions,  setting  the  pre- 
cej)ts  of  men  in  place  of  the  commandments  of  God; 
and  He  attributed  all  their  calamities  to  that,  and 
all  their  pei-il;  but  never  charged  them  with  not 
possessing  or  not  confessing,  or  not  carefully  pre- 
serving from  mutilation  those  records,  or  not  know- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     2j^ 

ing,  and  being  conscious  of,  their  importance  and 
authority  as  divine. 

But  the  Jews  did  never  receive  these  Scriptures  as 
divine,  merely  or  mainly  because  certain  historians 
acknowledged  them  as  such,  or  testified  of  them  that 
they  were  such;  but  those  historians  testified  that 
these  very  writings  were  the  books  that  at  the  time 
of  the  coming  of  Christ  had  been  translated  into  the 
Greek  tongue,  at  Alexandria,  and  were  in  habitual 
use  for  reference  as  of  divine  authority,  in  all  the 
synagogues;  "  where,"  said  Luke,  "  Moses  hath  in 
every  city  those  who  I'ead  them  every  Sabbath  day." 
When  the  Hebrew  tongue  was  passing  out  of  exist- 
ence as  a  vernacular  language,  which  however  was 
not  till  the  volume  of  the  Old  Testament  inspiration 
was  closed,  God  put  the  insj^ii-ed  records  in  the  ark 
of  the  Greek  tongue  for  transmission;  that  tongue 
made  immortal  by  the  genius  of  Homer  and  Plato, 
and  carried  through  the  world  by  the  conquests  of 
Alexander;  that  tongue,  in  which  Christ  Himself  was 
to  make  His  own  communications  to  mankind.  The 
genius  of  the  Hebrew  passed  into  the  Greek,  carr}'^- 
ing  into  its  more  modern  and  universal  dialect  the 
baptism  of  the  old  divine  insph'ation;  the  Greek  being 
as  it  were  thus  clothed  upon,  that  its  mortaUty  might 
be  swallowed  up  of  life. 

Now  we  are  entitled  to  ask.  Can  there  be  anything 


2j6     Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

more  suflS.ciently  and  satisfactorily  deraonstrated  than 
this  ?  And  what  unbehever  can  ever  find  fault  with 
God,  if  judged  according  to  this  evidence  ?  We  have 
the  very  same  Scrij)tures  that  Christ  declared  to  be 
the  Word  of  God.  They  were  a  perfectly  well  known 
and  indisi^utable  quantity  and  quality;  the  very  books, 
and  none  others,  of  that  divine  revelation,  out  of  which 
Christ's  mind,  from  childhood  to  manhood,  grew  and 
was  nourished,  in  the  completest  fulfilment  of  the  con- 
dition of  a  perfect  life,  that  by  every  word  that  pro- 
ceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God  shall  man  hve.  The 
Very  Scriptures,  and  the  books  of  Scriptru*e,  in  regard 
to  which,  at  the  age  of  twelve  years.  He  conferred 
with  the  doctors  of  the  law  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem, 
both  hearing  them,  and  asking  them  questions;  and 
out  of  which,  through  all  His  ministry,  He  had  been 
teaching  the  people.  He  knew  what  these  books  were; 
and  His  hearers  knew  the  same;  but  now  they  knew 
by  a  distinct  personal  afiirmation  and  enumeration 
from  Christ  Himself.  There  was  no  uncertainty,  there 
could  be  none.  There  was  not  one  book,  vouched  for 
by  Christ,  about  which  there  was  the  least  doubt,  that 
it  was  the  Word  of  God. 

All  the  things  in  that  Volume  of  the  Book,  covered 
and  governed  by  the  words  of  Christ  to  the  tempter 
in  the  wilderness,  It  is  written,  were  as  known  cer- 
tainties of  [divine  revelation,  as  the  axioms  of  geome- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     2^'/ 

try,  or  the  quantities  and  laws  of  astronomical  science. 
And  the  Scriptures  as  they  had  them,  and  as  Christ  re- 
ferred to  them,  and  expounded  them,  we  have  them 
also,  and  know  them;  the  very  same  Scriptures,  as 
truly,  as  indisputably,  as  the  planets  that  shone  upon 
the  Judean  landscaj^e  were  the  planets  that  now  shine 
upon  our  eflobe.  The  books  that  Christ  referred  to, 
and  expounded  and  taught,  were  the  infallible  Word 
of  God. 


XXX. 

SUFFICIENCY  OF  OUR  EVIDENCE— NO  ANCHORAGE  FOR 
ETERNITY  IN  UNCERTAINTIES— GOD'S  MERCY  NOT 
HIDDEN  IN  OBSCURITIES,  BUT  HE  SETS  HIS  BOW 
IN  THE  CLOUDS— THE  PROVERBS  OF  THIS  WORLD, 
PROPHECIES  OF  THE  NEXT— QUESTIONS  AND  CON- 
CLUSIONS OF  EXPERIMENTALISTS. 

Here  then  we  have  a  positive  double  anchorage  for 
our  faith,  from  which  we  cannot  be  dislodged.  Moses 
and  the  Prophets,  where  Christ  began,  are  a  part  of 
the  Scriptures  of  God.  There  is  no  room  for  doubt 
as  to  that  position.  That  one  thing  is  settled,  Moses 
and  all  the  Prcyphets.  But  in  the  forty-fourth  verse, 
it  is,  Moses  and  the  Prophets  and  the  Psalms.  These 
all  are  Scriptures  of  God,  infallible,  and  which  must 
all  be  fulfilled,  because  they  are  God's  Word.     Here 


2j8     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

is  a  second  position  where  our  anchorage  holds,  Moses 
and  the  Prophets  and  the  Psalms. 

Now  we  just  as  certainly  know  what  writings,  what 
books,  were  comj^rehended  and  referred  to  by  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  under  this  designation,  as  when 
the  poems  of  Homer  are  named,  we  know  that  the 
books  referred  to  are  those  of  the  Hiad  and  Odyssey. 
"VVe  know  what  those  books  were  to  which  Jesus 
Christ  referred,  as  being  the  books  of  the  "Word  of 
God,  about  as  certainly  as  we  know  that  Jesus  Christ 
existed.  And  those  Jews,  to  whom  Christ  was  ex- 
pounding those  Scriptures,  knew  as  well  as  He  did 
what  they  were,  what  precisely  was  the  Hebrew  Canon 
of  books,  which  they  preserved  with  such  inviolable 
carefulness  and  security,  and  to  wliich  Jesus  Christ 
referred  as  being  beyond  doubt  the  Word  of  God, 
and  to  which  He  anchored  the  minds  of  His  disciples, 
as  the  immutable  foundations  of  truth,  provided  by 
the  God  that  cannot  lie,  for  the  gift  of  life  eternal 
to  men  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins. 

Moreover,  He  stood  now  as  a  Being  bearing  witness 
from  the  other  world.  He  had  gone  into  His  eternal 
glory  and  returned.  He  had  entered  the  grave,  and 
risen  from  it.  He  had  entered  heaven,  and  carried 
with  Him  the  soul  of  the  penitent  thief,  from  the 
Cross  into  Paradise.  He  had  returned  among  the 
disciples  with  the  declaration,  All  power  is  given  unto 


God' s  Timepiece  for  Alaits  Eternity.     2jg 

Me  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  And  He  it  was  who  on 
earth  expounded  these  Scrij^tures,  leaving  no  possibil- 
ity of  any  uncertainty  as  to  their  identity  or  divineness. 

Now  this  is  a  perfectly  conclusive  and  triumjphant 
argument.  It  has  aU  the  guards  and  logical  requi- 
sites of  the  comj^letest  reasoning,  from  the  a  priori 
demonstration  to  that  of  experience.  Nevertheless, 
scientists  that  do  not  of  themselves  know  aU  things, 
must  begin  their  knowledges  by  taking  some  things 
for  assured  as  taught  them  by  authority,  and  so,  they 
too  must  be  justified  by  faith.  Can  we  possibly  make 
an  argument,  can  God  Himself  address  one  to  the  hu- 
man reason,  that  shall  stand  in  the  place  of  faith, 
that  shall  compel,  as  sight  compels,  by  demonstration 
to  the  senses,  so  that  there  shall  be  no  room  for 
doubt?  He  that  cometh  to  God  must  believe  that 
He  is,  must  come  without  seeing  Him,  and  cannot 
possibly  know  Him,  but  by  so  coming,  and  must 
believe  in  His  attributes  just  as  He  Himself  has  re- 
vealed them,  and  in  the  consequences  of  disobedience 
as  He  has  made  them^known. 

But  sufficient  evidence  is  given  to  all  for  the  be- 
ginning of  action,  for  coming  to  God  in  prayer;  and 
then  comes  the  witness  of  experience  by  the  Sj)irit 
of  God,  promised  in  answer  to  prayer.  But  that 
witness  is  impossible,  without  action  by  faith  upon 
the   preliminary  evidence.     The  Word  of  God  is  in- 


240     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

fallible.  It  is  contained  in  the  Scrij)tures.  But  tlie 
tilings  of  God  there  revealed  by  the  Holy  Spiiit 
knoweth  no  man  but  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  And  we 
cannot  construct  an  argument  to  the  reason,  that 
shall  stand  in  the  place  of  the  Spirit,  and  of  an 
eternal  experience,  and  do  the  work  which  the  Spii'it 
alone  can  do.  Just  as  we  cannot  construct  an  argu- 
ment from  nature,  or  a  demonstration  from  the  works 
of  God,  and  the  methods  of  discovered  law  in  those 
works,  that  shall  reveal  God  to  the  senses,  and  so 
supersede  the  necessity  of  faith,  compelling  men 
to  see  and  acknowledge  God;  not  the  forces  of  nature 
merely,  but  the  God  who  produces  them. 

Always,  even  to  the  end,  men  may  be  unbelievers 
if  they  will.  And  there  is  what  is  called  a  sea-push 
of  skepticism  in  our  day,  a  whirl,  a  black  knot,  in  the 
surf,  the  tide,  extremely  jDOwerful  and  dangerous. 
There  is  an  undertow  that  sets  out  from  the  beach, 
after  a  high  tide  of  faith;  a  reaction  as  of  cold  ague 
after  fever,  a  return  of  the  pendulum  to  the  opposite 
extreme.  It  is  an  undertow  l^hat  bathers  have  to 
watch  against,  for  it  is  so  strong,  that  even  those 
who  have  gone  in  to  help  others  out  have  been  car- 
ried beyond  their  depth,  and  lost  their  footing  and 
their  life.  Any  one  of  the  gospels  is  a  life-preserver 
in  the  wUdest  sea  that  ever  raged,  the  worst  storm 
that  ever  came  down  on  Galilee.     If  Christ  be  there, 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     241 

you  are  safe.  But  if  you  will  not  admit  Him  into 
your  ship,  but  treat  Him  as  an  impostor,  and  His 
life  as  a  romantic  fiction,  there  is  no  help  for  you. 
There  is  no  help  for  poor  human  nature,  if  Christ  be 
not  the  Way,  the  Truth,  the  Life. 


XXXI. 


"THEY    DON'T    COME    BACK   TO   TELL  "—COLERIDGE 
AND  JOHN  FOSTER— PAUL  AND  JOHN. 

A  great  thinker  upon  the  mysteries  of  our  being, 
and  an  experimentalist,  almost  to  the  last  degree, 
of  the  consequences  of  character  in  our  sins,  (Cole- 
ridge, the  philosopher  and  poet),  was  wont  to  say, 
Quantum  sumus,  scimus;  we  know  just  as  much  as 
we  are.  Our  consciousness,  our  experience,  under 
the  inward  teachings  and  witness  of  the  Spirit,  are 
the  exponent  of  all  our  real  self-knowledge.  And 
our  self-knowledge  of  all  that  we  have  become  and 
are,  if  we  find  ourselves  Hving  without  God  and 
without  Christ  in  this  world,  and  so  laying  the  foun- 
dations of  an  eternal  character  for  the  next  world,  is 
a  convincing  demonstration  of  all  that  we  shall  be, 
if  we  carry  these  habits  of  Hving  beyond  the  article 
of  dying.  "I  am  the  Kesurrection  and  the  Life," 
belongs  only  to  those  who  now,  in  the  time  of  God's 


242     Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

offered  mercy,  confess  Christ  before  men.  Otherwise, 
tlie  rejection  of  Him,  and  its  consequences,  abide 
upon  tlie  soul  forever. 

But,  exclaimed  John  Foster,  profoundly  musing 
on  the  mysteries  of  death,  the  state  of  the  lost,  and 
the  veil  impenetrable,  behind  which  all  results  are 
hidden,  except  in  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  "  They  don't 
come  hack  to  tell !  They  don't  come  back  to  tell ! " 
"Why  should  they?  If  they  did,  it  could  only  be 
to  point  to  the  Cross,  and  say,  "There  is  aU  that 
we  know  about  it.  And  you  on  earth  know  that, 
by  the  word  of  God.  AVe  know  that  we  suffer,  and 
that  jxistly,  receiving  the  due  reward  of  our  deeds. 
But  as  to  the  Eternity  of  it,  we  know  that  only  by  the 
Cross.  The  suffei'ings  and  dying  of  the  Son  of  God  are 
the  Logarithms  of  the  Eternal  "World.  There  is  no 
hope  for  us  out  of  Him,  none  for  you  if  you  reject 
Him,  and  die  in  your  sins.  There  remaineth  no 
more  sacrifice,  forever." 

Hence  the  importance  of  an  exceeding  faithfulness 
even  unto  death,  in  Christ's  witnesses,  both  in  word 
and  doctrine.  For  who,  otherwise,  is  sufficient  for 
these  things?  "Hold  fast,"  said  Paul  to  Timothy, 
"  the  form  of  sound  itwds,  which  thou  hast  heard  of 
me,  in  faith  and  love,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  Con- 
tinue thou  in  the  things  which  thou  hast  learned, 
and   hast   been  assured  of,  knowing  of  whom  thou 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    24.^ 

hast  learned  them;  and  that  from  a  child  thou  hast 
known  the  Holy  Scriptures,  which  are  able  to  make 
thee  wise  unto  salvation,  through  faith  which  is  in 
Christ  Jesus." 

And  John's  testimony!  "Who  is  he  that  overcom- 
eth  the  world,  but  he  that  believeth  that  Jesus  is 
the  Son  of  God,"  and  taketh  into  his  heart  all  that 
is  comprehended  in  that  article  of  faith,  and  in  Paul's 
again,  II  Cor.  v.  14,  15,  "Because,  we  thus  judge, 
that  if  one  died  for  aU,  then  were  all  dead;  and  that 
he  died,  in  order  that  they  who  live  should  no  more 
live  unto  themselves,  but  unto  Him,  who  died  for 
them  and  rose  again."  Knpwing  therefore  the  ter- 
ror of  the  Lord,  before  whom  all  are  to  stand  in  judg- 
ment for  all  things  done  in  the  body,  xve  persuade  men. 

There  is  no  other  persuasion  for  Eternity,  neither 
any  hope  held  out  for  those  who  choose  to  die,  not 
in  Christ,  but  in  theh-  own  sins,  having  neither  sought 
nor  found  his  forgiving  grace  and  mercy.  Death  in 
sin,  and  the  wages  of  sin,  are  the  end;  and  who  can 
arraign  God's  benevolence  in  it,  seeing  that  He  hath 
made  it  as  clearly  known  as  His  own  nature  in  Christ  ? 

Now  assuredly  the  infinite  importance  of  all  these 
communications  from  God  in  Christ,  as  to  our  Eter- 
nal Destiny,  lies  in  their  everlasting  and  infallible 
certainty.  It  is  absolutely  certain  that  God  would 
not  leave  us  in  doubt.     All  our  own  happiness,  and 


2^4     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

the  jDOSsibility  of  communicating  it  to  others,  reside 
in  the  use  of  our  ojDportunities  with  God's  certainties, 
not  obscurities,  to-day.  For  the  whole  Eternity  of 
men,  as  to  character  and  its  results,  depends  on 
the  confession  or  rejection  of  the  name  and  claims 
of  Christ,  before  men,  while  it  is  called  to-day.  The 
tides  in  every  man's  affairs  of  hfe,  the  seizures  of 
favorable  instants  at  the  forward  top,  the  crest  of 
the  wave  just  where  it  is  bending,  the  faiths,  pur- 
poses, resolutions,  not  sicklied  o'er  with  doubt,  nor 
palsied  by  delays — these  are  the  things  that  make 
us,  or  their  wanton  wastes  that  mar  us  forever. 

Go  into  a  foundry,  whether  of  iron,  or  brass,  or 
gold,  for  the  building  of  monuments  of  moral  char- 
acter and  glory;  or  watch  the  determination  of  suc- 
cess or  failure,  in  the  process  of  converting  iron 
into  steel;  the  necessity  of  the  measurement  and 
seizing  of  a  single  second  for  the  decision,  or  the 
whole  experiment  is  ruined.  These  are  analogies, 
apocalyptic  as  the  hghtning  upon  our  work  and  des- 
tiny for  Eternity. 

Mark  the  proverbs  of  society,  and  observe  how 
they  are  the  jDrinciples  of  endless  success  or  irretriev- 
able disaster  and  ruin.  To-day,  if  ye  wiU  hear  His 
voice,  harden  not  your  hearts.  Agree  with  thine 
adversary,  quickly.  Walk  in  the  hght,  while  the  light 
is  with  you,   and  in  you,   and  upon  you.     Walk   in 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    2^5 

love,  while  the  offered  Spirit  of  Love,  and  of  Power, 
and  of  a  sound  mind,  disposes  and  enables  you. 
Keep  thy  heart  all  the  way,  with  all  dihgence,  aU 
watchfulness;  take  the  water-power  at  the  wheel, 
and  the  will  at  the  stroke  of  the  walking-beam,  for 
the  dynamite  of  the  heart  is  in  it  to  the  last  point; 
the  irresistible,  all-conquering  force  of  the  whole 
machinery  thrown  through  its  blow,  in  body,  soul, 
and  spirit,  a  unit  in  the  explosion,  hurling  the  man, 
through  all  the  energy  of  a  life-time,  into  Eternity. 
Now  it  is  not  wonderfvd  that  a  thoughtful  mind  and 
awakened  conscience,  such  as  John  Foster,  should 
have  demanded  that  the  truth  of  an  Eternal  Ketribu- 
tion,  if  true,  should  be  thundered  as  with  the  sound  of 
many  waters,  and  reiterated,  as  with  the  blast  of  the 
Archangel's  Trumpet,  from  generation  to  generation, 
and  from  Genesis  to  the  Apocalypse.  For  this  de- 
mand God  Himself  has  fuUy  met  in  the  Incarnation 
and  Death  of  His  own  Son.  This  is  the  explosion  of  the 
artillery  of  all  God's  Providences  and  Scriptures.  It 
is  the  very  concentration,  and  evei'-acting  pressure 
of  infinite  certainty  from  Eternity  upon  the  finite 
mind.  What  less  is  that  transaction,  as  to  the  un- 
derstanding of  the  whole  government  of  God,  and 
of  all  the  divine  attributes,  and  all  the  destinies  of 
man,  than  the  forerunning  lightnings  and  thunders 
revealinor   an   Eternal    Judgment?     What    less  than 


2^6     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

the  tliuuder  of  Eternity  is  the  j)eal  of  the  tragedy  of 
the  death  of  Christ,  reverberated  from  the  chUdhood 
to  the  death  of  all  generations,  in  its  testimony 
against  sin,  out  of  love  to  the  soul  of  the  sinner? 
It  is  the  lesson  of  all  our  hearing,  the  Hght  of  all 
our  seeing.  And  there  can  be  neither  charity,  nor 
liberality,  nor  benevolence,  nor  largeness  of  mind, 
in  concealing  or  adulterating  any  of  these  truths,  or 
throwing  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  upon  them,  or  teach- 
ing mankind  to  rely  upon  the  obscurities  of  divine 
revelation  as  more  merciful  than  its  certainties. 


XXXII. 

THE  COURSE  OF  NATURE— THE  LANGUAGE  AND  THE 
LAWS  OF  FAITH— THE  EXPERLMENT  OF  TIME,  THE 
INVITATION  AND  THE  ACCEPTANCE  OF  DIVINE 
GRACE,  THE  DEATH  OF  DEATH  AND  HELL'S  DE- 
STRUCTION THROUGH  CHRIST,  AND  THE  BEGIN- 
NING OF  THE  LIFE  ETERNAL. 

The  course  of  nature  is  a  jDromulgation  of  law :  the 
consequences,  if  nature  be  violated,  are  a  ^promulgation 
of  penalty.  The  power  of  foresight  and  opportunity 
of  provision  against  evils  otherwise  certain  and  inevit- 
able is  an  element  and  arrangement  of  probation,  in 
which  there  is  offered  a  salvation  fi-om  future  evils,  a 


God's  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity.    2^^ 

safeguard  against*  the  "wratli  to  come.  The  necessity 
of  obeying  natiu'e  is  really  a  demonstration  of  the 
necessity  of  obe;ying  Grod  and  our  spiritual  destiny. 

And  in  natures  merely  animal  and  mechanical,  God, 
to  prevent  eyil,  has  set  this  law  of  instinct  as  a  main- 
spring, answering  the  place  and  piirpose  of  reason  in 
intelligent  creatures.  Instinct  winds  up  their  watch- 
es as  a  mechanical  intelhgence,  and  works  for  them 
inevitably  a  future  salvation.  It  is  involuntary.  But 
reason  acts  upon  information,  and  is  voluntary.  Rea- 
son receives  and  obeys  warnings,  and  is  responsible 
accordingly.  Instinct  obeys  a  mechanical  necessity. 
Instinct  is  the  working  out  of  a  character  preordained 
and  conformed  to  nature.  Reason  is  for  the  forma- 
tion and  exercise  of  a  voluntary  character  according 
to  God's  own  teachings.  The  devil  in  the  beginning 
did  not  say,  There  is  no  God,  but,  "He  is  7iot  a  true  God, 
you  cannot  trust  Him.  He  conceals  from  you  what 
you  ought  to  know,  and  tells  you  what  is  not  true, 
what  cannot  be  proved,  and  requii'es  you  to  act  ac- 
cordingly. Yea  hath  He  said,  In  the  day  that  thou 
eatest  thou  shalt  sui-ely  die  ?  But  I  teU  you  that  God 
doth  know  that  ye  shall  become  as  gods  knowing 
good  and  evU.  That  demonstration  is  what  He  with- 
holds from  you.  But  you  must  have  that,  or  else  do 
not  beHeve  what  He  tells  you.  You  can  trust  Him  no 
further  than  von  can  see  Him." 


2^.8     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

Now  that  is  the  language  of  men  towards  a  known 
villain;  and  that  is  the  way  in  which  unbelief  treats 
God.  And  that  is  John's  logical  definition  of  unbe- 
lief, Hath  made  God  a  liar. 

In  requiring  the  demonstration  of  sense,  and  pre- 
tending to  base  your  denial  of  the  Word  of  God  on 
that  necessity,  you  treat  God  as  a  liar,  and  cut  your- 
self off  from  all  possibility  of  communion  with  Him. 
He  cannot  give  you  demonstration  and  save  you;  for 
in  the  first  place  to  put  you  into  the  eternal  fires,  and 
so  convince  you,  would  be  your  ruin.  But  even  ihat 
would  not  be  demonstration;  for  as  to  the  eterniiy  of 
any  thing,  whether  haj)i3iness  or  misery,  a  demonstra- 
tion would  requu'e  that  you  live  through  that  eternity, 
that  you  experience  that  eternity,  and  measure  it 
yourself,  which  no  created  being  can  do. 

And  therefore  the  very  angels  have  to  take  God's 
Word  for  it.  Chi-ist's  dying  is  the  demonstration  for 
them,  as  for  us,  of  the  worth  of  the  soul  and  the 
reality  of  eternal  death  for  those  who  are  not  made 
partakers  of  His  hfe;  the  only  demonstration  that  even 
angels  can  have,  or  beings  of  any  kind  in  any  world. 

Even  the  rich  man  tormented  in  hell  might  have 
answered  Abraham,  when  he  told  him  there  was  a 
great  gulf  eternally  fixed  between  him  and  Heaven, 
How  do  you  know  ?  You  have  never  gone  half  way 
through  eternity.     You  know  not  what  may  be  in  the 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mail  s  Eternity.     2^g 

future;  you  must  have  demonstration.  I  know  as 
much  as  you  do.  You  have  to  take  all  things  on  the 
Word  of  God.  You  have  a  creed  as  God  teaches  it. 
But  I  beUeve  nothing  but  what  I  see  and  know 
by  demonstration.  I  beheve  only  my  own  senses, 
mj'seK. 

And  Abraham  might  have  answered,  "Well,  you 
have  3^our  reward.  BeHeve  on.  Your  senses  are 
true,  and  what  they  tell  you,  and  what  you  are  in 
them,  is  your  exj)erience;  and  because  you  would 
not  be  affected  by  higher  spiritual  testimony,  even 
God's  testimony,  the^e  Jlames  are  your  experience. 
But  what  God  is,  you  could  not  know,  nor  what 
God  would  do,  except  by  what  God  told  you  would 
come  upon  you.  And  the  im230ssibility  of  dweUing 
with  God,  or  being  happy  in  Him,  unless  you  be- 
lieve and  love  and  obey  Him,  you  now  find  out, 
alas,  too  late,  forever." 

Now  if  a  man  say.  There  is  no  need  of  all  this 
terrible  haste  and  clamor,  this  ringing  of  alarm 
bells  and  thundering  of  fire-engines,  this  repetition 
of  the  terrific  theological  watchwords  of  Retribution. 
It  cannot  be  that  this  is  our  only  chance;  there 
must  be  an  ophthalmic  hosj)ital  in  the  world  to 
which  we  are  going,  and  a  quarantine  there,  where 
men  may  be  healed.  The  answer  to  this  is  fovmd 
in   Christ's   own   declaration,   that  if  we,  the  guilty 


2^0     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

and  the  lost,  whom  He  came  to  seek  and  to  save, 
by  saving  us  from  our  sins,  refuse  to  accept  of  His 
mercy,  to  avail  ourselves  of  His  healing  ministra- 
tions, now,  while  they  are  offered,  to-day  while  it 
is  the  accepted  time  and  the  day  of  salvation,  it 
win  be  too  late  when  Time  is  ended  and  Eternity 
begun.  "  If  ye  believe  not  in  Me,  (Christ's  mercy 
forewarns  us),  ye  shall  die  in  your  sins.  While  ye 
have  light  believe  in  the  light  that  ye  may  be 
children  of  the  light.  He  that  believeth  not  in  Me, 
and  abideth  not  in  Me,  he  is  as  a  withered  branch 
that  is  to  be  cut  off  from  the  tree,  and  carried  away 
to  be  burned." 

Besides,  if  a  man  say  I  will  not  believe  until  I 
see,  untn  I  know  by  my  own  sense  and  knowledge, 
that  it  is  the  last  chance,  and  that  if  I  do  not  believe  I 
am  certainly  and  irremediably  doomed  and  lost  for- 
ever; it  is  perfectly  plain  that  such  a  man  never 
can  be  saved  by  beUeving  in  Chiist,  never  can 
know  the  power  of  faith,  nor  its  vitahty;  for  aU 
the  faith  that  such  a  person  ever  will  exercise,  or 
ever  can,  is  not  in  God  nor  in  Christ,  but  in  his 
own  senses,  and  in  the  testimony  of  heU-fire;  a  kind 
of  faith  that  even  if  it  cotdd  be  suj)posed  to  save 
the  soul,  would  evidently  do  it  by  dishonoring  and 
disobeying  Gi-od  as  long  as  possible. 

The  question  for  the  soul  through  eternity  is  just 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity.     2^1 

tliis,  Can  you  trust  God?  Do  you  take  Him  at  His 
Word,  or  do  you  susj)ect  Him  of  some  deceit  or  ex- 
aggeration, and  are  you  resolved  to  wait  upon  your 
own  experience  as  yoiu"  only  infallible  teacher  ? 

If  the  latter,  then  you  are  the  worshij)per  of  your 
own  senses,  and  you  are  forming  and  fostering  that 
carnal  mind,  which  is  enmity  against  God.  You 
can  truly  worship  God  only  by  faith,  seeing  He 
has  thought  fit  to  address  you  in  His  Word,  and 
to  warn  you  what  is  best  for  you. 

A  man  should  therefore  say,  If  I  am  ever  to  ex- 
ercise any  virtue  by  faith,  now  is  the  time.  Now 
will  I  trust  in  God  and  obey  Him.  I  will  not  go 
into  the  eternal  world  a  mean,  suspicious,  self-wor- 
shipping and  self-indulging  brute  of  the  senses.  But 
I  will  come  to  God  in  Christ,  and  so,  thi'ough  His  in- 
finitely merciful  grace,  I  shall  be  made  worthy  of 
Him,  worthy  to  be  accepted  by  Him.  I  will  awake, 
at  His  voice,  from  the  dead,  and  go  into  Eternity 
A  Living  Soul  in  Him,  through  His  most  precious 
blood.  Not  a  despau-ing  leper  into  a  hospital,  nor 
a  bhnd  man  to  be  operated  upon,  nor  an  abortion 
of  sin  to  be  treated  with  the  surgery  of  heU;  but 
I  will  go,  complete  in  Christ,  an  heir  of  God  by 
faith  in  Christ,  and  a  joint  heir  with  Him,  made 
meet  to  be  a  partaker  of  the  inheritance  of  saints 
in  Hght,  in  His  image;  dear  unto  God,  to  be  pre- 


2^2     God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity. 

sented  in  Clirist  before  His  throne  in  His  likeness, 
without  sj)ot,  or  wrinkle,  or  any  sucli  thing. 

O  wonderful  prophecy  of  the  Eternal  fulness  of 
Christ's  dying  love!  And  the  riches  of  the  glory 
of  His  Inheritance  in  the  Saints !  And  the  infinite 
reward  of  the  confession  of  His  Name  by  sinful  men 
on  earth !  "  We  shall  be  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see 
Him  as  He  is.  "Whom,  having  not  seen,  ye  love;  in 
whom,  though  now  ye  see  Him  not,  yet,  believing, 
ye  rejoice,  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory. 
When  Christ,  who  is  our  Kfe,  shall  appear,  then 
shall  ye  also  appear  with  Him  in  glory." 

The  spirit  and  the  Bride  say.  Come !  And  let  him 
that  heareth  say,  Come !  And  let  him  that  is  athirst. 
Come !  And  whosoever  will,  let  him  take  the  water 
of  life,  freely. 

The  offer  and  the  possibilities  now,  in  Christ  Jesus 
the   love,   the   mercy,   the   forgiving   and  sanctifying 
grace;  its  available  methods,  du'ections,  and  certain- 
ties, now,  for  all  souls;  are  God's  infinitely  compassion 
ate  and  perfect  Time-Piece  for  Man's  Eternity. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eteriiity.    2^j 


XXXIII. 

THE  REVELATION  OF  SIN  AND  ITS  CONSEQUENCES  CON- 
SIDERED AS  A  CENTRAL  PROOF  OF  THE  PLENARY 
VERBAL  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

Both  tlie  consequences  of  unbelief,  and  the  re- 
wards of  faith,  demonstrate  the  necessity  of  a  plen- 
ary verbal  inspiration  in  any  revelation  of  the  attri- 
butes of  God  and  the  sinfulness  of  man,  for  the  soul's 
instruction  ia  the  way  of  life.  Sometimes  these  prin- 
ciples are  concentrated  as  in  a  mountain  of  fire  for 
aU  ages,  as  in  the  great  central  seventeenth  chapter 
of  Jeremiah,  verses  5,  7,  9,  10.  "Thus  saith  the 
Lord,  Cursed  be  the  man  that  trusteth  ia  man,  and 
maketh  flesh  his  arm,  and  whose  heart  departeth 
from  the  Lord.  Blessed  is  the  man  that  trusteth 
in  the  Lord,  and  whose  hope  the  Lord  is.  The 
heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and  desperately 
wicked:  who  can  know  it?  I  the  Lord  search  the 
heart,  I  try  the  reins,  even  to  give  every  man  ac- 
cording to  his  ways,  and  according  to  the  fruit  of 
his  doings." 

Here  we  have  the  divine  eternal  laws  of  justice  and 
judgment,  beginning  with  the  heart.  And  in  these 
words  God  hath  set  for  us  these  tremendous  postu- 


2^^     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

lates  of  faith,  in  regard  to  sin  and  eternity,  for  uni- 
versal liuman  knowledge  and  experience,  heathen  as 
weU  as  Christian,  through  all  ages. 

As  to  the  heart,  which  is  what  concerns  us  for  eter- 
nity, its  condition  by  sin  is  a  cardinal  doctrine  of  truth 
in  moral  science,  in  government,  in  religion,  in  theol- 
ogy; an  incontrovertible  postulate  in  all  our  dealings 
one  with  another  and  with  God.  God's  description 
of  it,  and  statement  of  the  consequences,  are  at  the 
same  time  the  demonstration  of  sin,  hell,  redemp- 
tion, grace,  and  heaven.  There  can  be  no  exagger- 
ation, for  it  is  God's  own  "Word;  and  throughout 
the  Scriptures,  from  Genesis  to  Revelation,  deep 
answers  unto  deep  at  the  noise  of  these  terrific 
waterspouts.  Yet  above  all  such  terrors  the  rain- 
bow of  God's  mercy  is  brighter  than  the  lightnings 
of  justice.  And  through  the  whole,  and  in  all  men's 
experience,  as  in  water  face  answereth  to  face,  so,  in 
this  mirror  of  man's  sinful  nature,  given  by  God's 
compassion  for  man's  guidance,  the  heart  of  man 
answers  to  man,  as  when  God  saw  that  the  wicked- 
ness of  man  was  great  in  the  earth,  and  that  every 
imagination  of  the  thoughts  of  his  heart  is  only  evil 
continually. 

"  Every  way  of  a  man  is  right  in  his  own  eyes;  but 
the  Lord  pondereth  the  hearts."  And  if  thou  sayest, 
Behold,  we  knew  it  not; — was  it  not  thine  own  self- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity.     2^^ 

blindness  that  Teiled  thy  consciousness,  and  hid  from 
thee  the  eye  of  Grod  ?  "  Doth  not  He  that  ponder- 
eth  the  heart  consider  it?  And  He  that  keepeth 
thy  sonl,  doth  not  He  know  it?  And  shall  He  not 
render  to  every  man  according  to  his  work?  And 
shall  not  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right?  Or 
is  God  unrighteous  that  taketh  vengeance?  God 
forbid!  For  then  how  shall  God  judge  the  world? 
For  God  requireth  that  which  is  past,  and  will  bring 
every  work  into  judgment,  with  every  secret  thing, 
whether  it  be  good  or  evil." — Prov.  v.  21,  and  xxi. 
2,  and  xxiv.  12,  and  Eccl.  iii.  14,  15,  with  Kom.  iii.  5. 

These  concentrated  questions  and  answers  are  as 
the  charge  of  an  army  of  God's  hosts,  with  bayo- 
nets of  electric  fire.  Antediluvians  that  rebelled,  and 
patriarchal  theologians  that  walked  with  God;  repre- 
sentatives of  human  nature,  and  witnesses  for  the 
divine  attributes;  Enoch,  Noah,  Abraham,  Job,  Jos- 
eph, Moses,  Samuel,  David,  Isaiah,  Hosea,  Jeremiah, 
Ezekiel,  Daniel,  Peter,  Paul,  John,  lift  up  one  and 
the  same  voice  of  warning  in  these  vast  and  mighty 
titterances;  the  testimonies  of  man's  experience,  and 
God's  merciful  interpositions  accordingly;  for  the  good 
of  the  universe,  out  of  mercy  to  the  universe  forever. 

Such  is  the  testimony,  rejjeated  in  the  Book  of  Ee- 
elesiastes  (ix.  3),  that  God  hath  not  only  set  Eternity 
(both  the  idea  and  its  warning)  in  the  heart  of  the 


2^6     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

sons  of  men,  but  that,  notwitlistanding  this,  the  heart 
of  all  generations  is  fully  set  in  them  to  do  evil;  so 
that  madness  is  in  their  heart,  while  they  live;  and 
in  this  quality  and  character  they  go  to  the  judgment. 

All  this  evidence,  from  Genesis  to  Malachi,  is  the 
infallible  instruction  and  warning  of  infinite,  incar- 
nate Tbuth  and  Love.  The  love  itself  demands  and 
creates  the  infallible  verbal  certainty.  For  God's 
administration  is  in  all  mercy  and  wisdom,  especially 
in  its  heart-j)robing  severity.  He  begins  with  the 
heart,  at  the  fountain;  and  thence  onward  the  whole 
history  of  mankind  is  one  of  vast,  instructive,  heart- 
searching  and  demonstrative  experiments:  laying  open 
the  carnal  heart  and  mind  at  enmity  against  God. 
Experiments,  of  like  vastness  of  ages,  races,  and  na- 
tions; and  all  the  illustrations  are  of  man's  deprav- 
ity, even  under  all  the  divine  incarnate  lights  of 
forbearance,  mercy,  warning,  instruction,  and  holi- 
ness; in  the  midst  of  Abrahamic,  Mosaic,  prophetic. 
Messianic  promises,  inviting,  forgiving,  through  a  Sa- 
viour to  come. 

The  consequences  of  sin,  in  retributive  justice  and 
self-misery,  from  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  down  to  the 
whole  seven  hells  of  Canaan  are  revealed;  with  mir- 
acles all  the  while  flaming  through  the  world,  the 
reports  of  which,  and  the  awful  reverberated  glory 
of  their  judgments,  went  through  all  kingdoms;  yet 


God's  Timepiece foi''  Mans  Eternity.     2^j 

all  the  while  the  human  heart  unreclaimed,  mad  upon 
its  idols,  desperately  wicked.  And  because  of  all  this, 
precedents  of  law  and  grace  in  a  divine  revelation 
always  accumulating,  and  instructions  how  to  deal 
with  the  heart,  and  confessions  and  prayers  wi'itten 
out  for  our  use,  full  of  contrition  and  faith  in  God's 
mercy,  and  disclosing  the  experiences  of  penitent 
and  trustful  sorJs  in  the  way  of  redemi^tion;  a  di- 
vinely prepared  liturgy,  inspired  by  the  Holy  Spii'it 
for  the  whole  world  of  sinners,  acknowledging  the 
plague  of  their  own  hearts,  and  imploring  God's 
mercy. 

And  then  comes  the  Redeemer,  God  Incarnate,  God 
MANDTEST  nsr  THE  FLESH,  and  the  history  of  the  Crucifix- 
ion, and  the  way  in  which  men  have  treated  God's 
own  ascended  Son,  and  God's  whole  inspired  Word; 
and  the  bold  denial  of  both,  after  ages  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  Him,  who  is  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the 
Life,  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever ! 

God,  in  all  His  Word  from  the  beginning,  reveals 
sin  as  against  HimseK  and  against  man,  in  itseK  and 
in  its  consequences,  for  time  and  eternity.  All  His 
statutes  and  judgments  are  infinite  in  mercy  on  ac- 
count of  8171,  and  for  the  discovery  of  sin,  and  sense 
of  guilt,  and  disclosure  of  new-creating  grace;  aU  His 
deahngs  and  revelations  benevolent,  wise,  heart-search- 
ing, for  the  eternal  saving  of  men  from  sin  and  self 


2^8     God's  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity. 

and  Satan.  History,  description,  the  human  race  in 
individuals,  societies,  ages,  empires,  and  God's  own 
legislation  for  man;  in  all  things  searching  and  illu- 
minating the  heart  in  its  wickedness,  and  demonstrat- 
ing the  impossibihty  of  peace  or  happiness  or  good 
government,  except  the  heart  be  renewed  by  divine 
grace.  And  so  the  rejection  of  God's  Word,  and 
of  its  infallible  word-inspiratioyi,  and  the  denial  of 
the  cardinal  truth  of  man's  entire  dej)ravity,  and  of 
the  need  of  God's  methods  of  grace  in  Christ,  are  the 
destruction  of  all  good,  and  of  all  hope  of  bringing 
men  to  repentance. 


XXXIY. 

INFALLIBLE  INSPIRATION  OF  ALL  THE  WORDS  OF 
GOD'S  LAW-BOOK  DEMONSTRATED  BY  THE  NA- 
TURE OF  ITS  TRUTHS;  AND  BY  THE  SAVIOUR'S 
WORDS;  AND  BY  THE  CONSEQUENCES  OF  IDLE 
WORDS. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  hnks  of  a  demonslration 
of  the  necessary  Plenary  Verbal  Inspiration  of  every  part 
of  the  Law-Book  of  God's  government,  with  all  His  own 
illustrative  precedents  set  down  for  man's  guidance 
to  Eternal  Life;  by  faith  in  Him,  and  in  His  Word, 
who  is  the  Author  and  Finisher  of  Faith. 

All  possible  conceivable  securities  are  in  this  Chro- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    2^g 


nometer  and  Chart  for  a  safe  voyage  to  Eternity; 
iiotliing  is  wanting  for  its  absolute  perfection.  If  we 
may  trust  in  God  as  our  Creator,  we  may  also,  to  the 
uttermost,  in  His  lorovisions  for  us  as  our  Eedeemer. 

Consider  now  the  immensity  and  multitude  of  the 
truths  made  known  to  us  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures, 
and  in  the  Gospels,  Acts,  Epistles  and  Apocalypse. 
The  creation  and  fall  of  man  and  its  consequences; 
the  incarnation,  death,  resurrection  and  ascension  of 
the  Son  of  God;  His  unsearchable  equality  and  per- 
sonal identity  with  the  Father,  in  all  the  attributes 
of  God  made  known  to  us,  or  conceivable  by  us;  the 
succession  and  multitude  of  predictions  fulfilled  in 
His  life  and  death;  the  dependence  of  the  destinies 
of  all  mankind  on  His  words;  His  revelations  of  fu- 
turity, immortality,  and  the  judgment  to  come; — and 
aU  these  truths,  and  the  knowledge  of  them,  the 
very  truths  by  which  the  righteous  Judge  of  all 
mankind  will  order  the  retributions  of  Eternity.  In 
His  infinite  righteousness  and  mercy  He  can  do 
nothing   less. 

Does  the  human  reason  admit  the  i^ossibility  of  a 
revelation  of  such  truths,  without  a  Plenary  Verbal 
Inspiration  of  them,  so  that  by  the  words  in  which  they 
are  conveyed,  the  Judge  of  aU  the  earth  may  be  justi 
fied  ?  Could  such  truths  have  been  left,  as  uncertain 
glimmerings  or  marsh-lights,  or  spangles  of  gold,  to 


26o     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

be  discovered  and  assayed  by  human  ingenuity  from 
mountains  of  mere  quartz  and  pyrites  ?  Judgments, 
statutes,  principles,  i^recedents  and  precepts  of  right- 
eousness, by  which  a  universe  of  intelligent  immortal 
beings  are  to  be  judged,  left  to  be  doubtfully  dis- 
cerned, amidst  volumes  of  forgeries  and  lies,  demon- 
strated to  have  been  such  from  the  beginning !  And 
so  left  at  the  mercy  of  unscrupulous  judges  of  fact 
and  law,  that  unprincipled  lawyers  may  keep  infinite 
estates  in  chancery  by  technicalities  for  their  own 
profit  from  generation  to  generation!  If  there  be 
a  God  revealing  Himself  to  mankind  for  theu^  good, 
this  is  impossible. 

And  now  we  carry  these  surveys  back  to  the  quali- 
ties, jDurposes,  extent,  application  and  eternity  of 
God's  Revelation,  as  defined  in  Deut.  xxix.  29  (see 
page  7,  ch.  2),  and  lay  them  alongside  the  methods 
of  God's  providence,  and  the  histories  of  His  succes- 
sive revelations  to  mankind,  and  the  disclosures  of 
human  depravity  and  guilt,  and  consequent  self-caused, 
ignorance,  bhndness,  and  darkness;  and  we  ask,  Gould 
anything  less  than  a  2)lenary  verbal  accuracy  be  required 
of  a  benevolent  and  just  Creator  and  Governor,  in 
the  volume  of  attributes  and  laws  by  which  the  sub- 
jects of  His  government  are  to  be  rewarded  accoiding 
to  their  works  ? 

There  can  be  but  one  answer,  and  that  is  given  by 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    261 

Chi'ist.  "  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they  are 
Spirit  and  they  are  Life.  There  is  One  that  judgeth 
you;  and  My  words  ai'e  not  Mine,  but  the  Father's 
that  sent  Me.  All  things  that  the  Father  hath  are 
Mine.  And  if  any  man  hear  My  words  and  believe 
not,  I  judge  him  not;  for  I  came  not  to  judge  the 
world,  but  to  save  the  world.  He  that  rejecteth  Me, 
and  receiveth  not  M}^  words,  hath  One  that  judgeth 
him.  The  Word  that  I  have  spoken,  the  same  shall 
judge  him  in  the  last  day.  For  I  have  not  spoken 
of  myself;  but  the  Father  which  sent  Me,  He  gave 
Me  a  commandment,  what  I  should  say  and  what  I 
should  speak.  And  I  know  that  His  commandment 
is  life  everlasting;  whatsoever  I  speak  therefore,  even 
as  the  Father  said  unto  Me,  so  I  speak." 

These  are  the  last  words  of  Christ  to  the  whole 
world  before  His  death.  "I  am  come  a  Light  into 
the  world,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  Me  should 
not  abide  in  darkness."  It  is  impossible  that  any- 
thing less  than  a  divine  verbal  infallibility  can  be 
jDroposed  or  understood  in  these  communications  of 
Christ  for  the  salvation  of  mankind. 

Our  Lord  Jesus  assumes  as  His  own  the  Divine 
Attributes  of  Omniscience  and  Sujoreme  Deity,  by 
which  He  will  Himself  judge  the  world,  when  He  says, 
(Rev.  ii.  23,)  "I  am  He  that  searcheth  the  reins  and 
hearts:  and  I  will  give  unto  every  one  of  you  accord- 


262     God's  Timepiece  for  Ma7ts  Eternity. 

ing  to  your  works."  And  in  Matt.  xii.  34-37,  as  well 
as  Luke  vi.  45-47,  "I  say  unto  you  that  every  idle 
word  that  men  shall  speak,  they  sliaU  give  accovint 
thereof  in  the  Day  of  Judgment.  For  by  thy  words 
thou  shalt  be  justified,  and  by  thy  words  thou  shalt 
be  condemned."  Every  word  is  a  work;  and  word 
and  work,  thought  and  habit,  out  of  the  same  heart. 
Every  idle  word  therefore  an  infallible  revelation  of 
character. 

Is  this  a  righteous  judgment?  Heedless  words, 
recklessly  scattered  by  men  or  angels,  may  be  as 
fire-brands,  an'ows,  and  death,  in  their  lighting  on 
unguarded  souls,  and  rankling  as  fiery  darts  of  Satan. 
"With  what  measure  ye  meet,  the  consequences  as 
well  as  the  contents,  shall  be  measured  to  you  again. 
Every  idle  word!  Beyond  question,  in  the  face  of 
Eternity,  this  judgment  is  righteous.  And  the  same 
righteous  law  applies  to  God  Himself,  and  to  God's 
heart,  and  to  Jesus  Christ,  God  manifest  in  the  flesh, 
as  to  all  mankind.  If  God,  or  the  Son  of.  God, 
coald  be  imagined  ever  to  have  spoken  or  inspired 
any  careless,  exaggerated,  uncertain  or  idle  words, 
or  ever  circulated  a  faUible  word  or  law,  instruction 
or  precept,  as  infallible  truth,  and  binding  upon  men 
as  God's  Word,  that  cannot  lie.  He  would  Himself 
be  judged  by  the  same  rule,  and  the  same  law  of 
coHsequences. 


Gods  Ti7nepiece for  Mans  Eternity.     26 j 

Only  this  is  to  be  considered,  that  the  consequences 
of  careless  words,  or  false  uncertain  words  or  propo- 
sitions, would  be  as  much  vaster  and  more  terrible 
in  God  and  in  Christ,  the  God  incarnate,  than  in 
man,  as  the  character  of  God  is  infinitely  more  im- 
portant than  man's  character,  and  the  universe  of 
God  greater  than  a  man's  birth-place,  and  the  govern- 
ment of  God  than  a  man's  government,  and  the 
thoughts  and  words  of  God  as  high  above  those  of 
man,  as  heaven  is  above  earth,  and  unsearchable  and 
germinating  and  creative  as  the  infinitude  of  Eternity. 

Now  out  of  this  unquestionable  demonstration  by 
the  Lord  Jesus,  there  arises  a  proof  incontrovertible 
of  the  infallible  divine  inspiration  of  the  whole  Script- 
ui-es;  their  plenary  verbal  inspiration;  so  that  every 
word  is  divine  truth,  and  no  careless  words  possi- 
ble, from  Moses  in  the  Pentateuch  down  to  John 
in  the  Apocalypse. 

For  we  must  inevitably  apply  the  rtde  of  conse- 
quences, by  ivhich  ive  are  to  be  judged,  to  God's  own 
rule,  by  which  He  is  to  be  justified;  to  God's  Law  of 
Love  proclaimed  by  Moses  and  again  by  Christ,  by 
which  Law,  as  given  by  Moses,  the  whole  tmivorse 
is  quickened,  balanced,  governed,  and  beatified  for- 
ever. Where  is  that  Law  first  enunciated?  In  the 
Old  Testament,  in  the  books  of  Moses!  Where  and 
whence  did  Jesus  quote  it,  and  apply  it,  to  all  man- 


264     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

liind,  and  for  all  Eternity?  From  Moses,  and  m 
Deuteronomy,  and  to  the  whole  universe  of  God. 

Now  take  Mark  xii.  28-34,  with  the  preceding  para- 
graj^h  beginning,  "Moses  wrote  unto  us,"  and  con- 
cluding, "Have  ye  not  read  in  the  Book  of  Moses," 
and  compare  Luke  x.  25-28,  What  is  wkitten  in  the 
Law,  as  to  the  way  of  Eternal  Life?  How  readest 
thou?  And  he,  the  lawyer,  answering,  said,  "Thou 
SHALT  LOVE  the  Lord  thy  Grod,  with  all  thy  heart,  soul, 
strength,  and  mind;  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 
The  words  quoted  as  written  in  the  Law  were  from 
Deut.  and  Leviticus,  and  comprehended  in  the  phrase 
"written  in  the  Law,"  the  whole  Sceiptuees,  from 
which  the  Pharisees,  Scribes,  Sadducees,  and  all 
Judea,  as  well  as  Christ  and  His  Apostles,  reasoned 
aUke,  as  from  the  whole  and  sole  body  of  divine 
truth,  all  from  God,  and  aU  unquestionable  and 
infallible. 

The  whole  of  Christ's  integrity,  for  us  and  for  all 
mankind,  rests  upon  the  words  and  authority  of  that 
quotation,  and  upon  the  truth  of  Christ's  testimony, 
that  it  ivas  given  from  God  to  Hoses  and  lorilten  hy 
him. 

The  two  quotations  recorded  in  Mark  and  Luke 
are  a  combination  of  Deut.  vi.  5,  and  Lev.  xix.  18; 
and  both  these  books  are  presented  and  appealed 
to  under  the  same  title  and  description  of  the  Law 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Maris  Eternity.     265 


and  the  Scriptures.  The  lawyer  who  put  the  question, 
"What  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal  hfe?"  was  an- 
swered by  Christ,  What  is  written  in  the  Law?  How 
readiest  thou?  And  the  lawyer  immediately  put  Le- 
viticus and  Deuteronomy  together  in  his  answer. 
And  Jesus  said,   Thou  hast  ansivered  right. 

Part  of  the  first  commandment  was  in  Deuteronomy; 
the  other  part  in  Leviticus; — and  no  question,  either 
with  the  Jews,  the  lawyer,  or  the  Saviour,  that 
both  books  were  the  same  inspu-ation  from  God,  and 
both  written  by  Moses. 

And  then  again  in  Mark,  the  same  reasoning  of 
Christ  followed  a  quotation  by  Him  from  the  Book  of 
Exodus,  on  immortaUty;  so  that  we  have  Exodus, 
Leviticus,  and  Deuteronomy,  all  here  affirmed  by 
the  Lord  Jesus  and  the  Jews,  and  then-  scribes  and 
lawyers,  as  being  the  Scriptures  of  Gtod,  and  the 
Law  of  God,  and  the  writing  of  Moses,  separately 
and  together. 

And  the  great  subjects  that  prove  them  are  the 
highest  attributes  of  God,  as  revealed  and  worded 
by  Himself,  for  all  mankind.  But  the  criticism  of 
the  destructives,  or  what  is  absm'dly  called  "The 
Higher  Literary  Criticism,"  tears  these  books  and 
texts  asunder,  and  affirms  that  only  half  of  what 
our  Lord  quotes  as  the  first  commandment  was  ever 
given  by  Moses  at  all;  and  the  rest  never  revealed 


266     God's  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity, 

by  God,  or  even  proposed  as  God's  law  to  the 
Jews,  till  near  a  thousand  years  later,  and  then 
wrought  out  as  a  forgery,  to  brmg  about  a  political 
revolution ! ! 


XXXV. 

THE  LAW  OF  THE  SABBATH,  WITH  OUR  LORD'S  DO- 
MINION OVER  IT,  AND  THE  GOSPEL  TO  THE  POOR, 
DEMONSTRATE  A  VERBAL  INSPIRATION— THE  FIRST 
SERMON  IN  NAZARETH. 

The  Sabbath  is  a  concentration  of  the  two  first 
commandments,  in  the  Decalogue,  as  set  forth  by 
our  Lord,  (Mark  xii.  29-31),  "The  Lord  our  Go.d 
is  ONE  Lord;  and  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God 
with  all  thy  heart; — and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 
And  from  the  history  and  laws  of  the  Sabbath,  and 
their  intricate  and  minute  connections  with  the  whole 
work  of  human  salvation,  we  derive  a  comprehensive 
proof  of  the  verbal  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.  This 
is  illustrated  in  the  universality  of  the  Sabbath  Cov- 
enants of  promise,  as  referred  to  in  Isaiah,  chapters 
55,  56,  58,  compared  with  Eph.  ii.  12,  13,  and  iv. 
4—16,  and  Phil.  ii.  9-11,  and  Rom.  xiv.  9; — covenants 
embracing  all  mankind.  Gentiles  as  well  as  Jews, 
once  afar  off,  but  now  made  nigh  by  the  blood  of 


God's  Thnepiece for  Mans  Eternity.    26'j 

Christ,  and  brouglit  into  blissful  unity  with  God, 
in  Him  of  whom  the  whole  family  in  heaven  and 
earth  is  named. 

God's  law  of  love  lays  hold  upon  men's  hearts, 
and  is  the  only  legislation  that  does  this.  All  other 
is  a  mere  external  vice;  holding  its  subjects  as  for 
the  biting  of  a  file.  God's  law  never  deals  with 
symptoms  merely,  but  is  the  work  of  Him  who  judges 
the  hearts  of  all  mankind.  AU  its  knots  are  knee- 
timbers,  growths  of  its  loving  hfe;  thou  shalt  not 
covet,  lie,  steal,  murder,  or  commit  adultery,  growing 
out  of  this,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself. 
The  not  doing  this  becomes  enmity  against  both 
God  and  man. 

All  the  laws  of  God,  whether  as  to  omission  or 
commission,  are  gifts  of  His  mercy,  that  we  may,  by 
obedience  and  use,  be  made  like  unto  Himself,  par- 
takers of  the  divine  nature.  So,  the  formula  of 
everything  that  comes  from  God  is  just  this,  of 
generosity,  and  loving  care  for  our  good,  for  Time 
and  Eternity,  physical  and  spiritual. 

The  Decalogue  with  all  its  ramifications,  passes 
through  the  Sabbath,  fastening  the  whole  of  man's 
spix'itual  existence  to  it,  in  the  provision  that  six 
days  of  labor  shall  suj)ply  man's  daily  bread  for 
seven  days;  consecrating  the  seventh,  as  a  heaven 
on    earth,   in   its  blessed    uses    and    enjoyments,    in 


268     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

the  worsliij)  and  love  of  God.  All  the  successive 
laws  run  through  this,  as  through  a  pulley,  and  are 
grappled  in  the  divine  organization  of  human  so- 
ciety. For  by  this  foreordained  gift  and  grace  of 
the  Sabbath  as  Christ's  day,  co-eval  with  the  Eter- 
nity of  His  own  holiness  and  glory,  and  purpose 
of  human  salvation,  "the  creature  itself  shovdd  be 
delivered  from  the  bondage  of  corruj)tion  into  the 
glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God." 

And  so  the  Law  of  the  Sabbath,  with  all  its  pur- 
poses and  appropriations  by  our  blessed  Lord,  in 
His  incarnation,  sufferings,  crucifixion,  resurrection, 
ascension,  and  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost  attend- 
ant on  His  Word,  becomes  the  law  of  gravitation 
in  the  spiritual  universe;  upholding  aU  things  by 
the  Word  of  His  power,  the  government  being  upon 
His  shoulder,  even  forever. 

The  Sabbath  of  God,  at  the  first  Creation,  is  that 
of  Christ  for  the  New  Creation.  And  for  this  pur- 
pose, and  in  all  the  divine  laws,  precepts  and  prom- 
ises connected  as  a  spiral  of  causes  within  it,  the 
Sabbath  is  like  a  ganglion  *  of  nerves  and  will-power, 
running  from  the  brain  and  spinal  cord  in  our  bodies; 
conveying  the  impulses  and  noting  the  paths  of  obedi- 

*  "A  mass  of  nervous  matter,  forming  a  centre,  from  which 
nervous  fibres  radiate."  Duuglison.  In  the  Hebrew,  "a  holi- 
ness-day, a  Sabbath  of  rest  to  the  Lord." — Ex.  xxxv.  2. 


God's  Timepiece  f 01^  Alan's  Eternity.    26g 


ence  in  all  directions.  Is.  Iviii.  13,  and  lix.  21.  These 
arrangements  in  the  human  frame,  so  fearfully  and 
wonderfully  made,  are  forth-shadowings  of  the  sacred 
verbal  minuteness  and  accuracy  of  the  Divine  Words 
(Spirit  and  "Words,  Is.  lix.  21),  in  the  creation  of 
the  Scriptures  and  their  institutions,  by  the  infallible 
inspiration  of  Divine  Love.  The  Sabbath  in  Christ, 
and  Christ  in.  it,  its  Lord  and  Life,  are  our  cen- 
tral illustration  and  proof  of  the  methods  of  God's 
mercy,  from  the  Creation  of  mankind  to  the  Day  of 
Judgment. 

How  comprehensive  and  instructive  are  the  graphic 
accounts  concerning  it,  in  God's  early,  intense,  and 
jealous  discipline  of  the  Hebrews  in  the  wilderness, 
and  His  carefulness  and  grace  in  giving  them  the 
reason  and  the  rule  of  its  particulars.  Compare  Ex. 
xvi.  29,  and  the  parallel  passages.  "  See !  for  that 
He  giveth  thee  the  Sabbath,  therefore  He  giveth 
you,  on  the  sixth  day,  the  bread  of  two  days!  Let 
no  man  go  out  of  his  place  on  the  seventh  day." 
And  Ex.  XXXV.  3,  "Ye  shall  kindle  no  fire  through- 
out your  habitations."  The  supposed  severity  was 
the  fulness  of  divine  compassion  and  mercy,  with 
a  double  miracle,  perpetual  to  secure  it. 

Because,  from  the  Creation  of  the  world  He  hath 
given  thee  the  Sabbath;  the  mu-acle  of  thine  own 
rest,   as  founded  in  His,   prophesied,    quahfied,    and 


2^0     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity, 

patterned  after  His;  therefore  He  giveth  thee  leisui*e 
and  rehef  from  temj)oral  and  bodily  wants  and  anx- 
ieties, "by  the  supply  of  these  last  beforehand!  Thy 
daily  bread  and  thy  sj)iritual  are  thus  mutually  sanc- 
tified, in  that  one  good  and  perfect  gift  from  the 
Father  of  lights,  who  hath  engrafted  in  it  and 
in  us,  the  word  of  truth,  which  is  able  to  save 
our  souls,  the  perfect  law  of  life  and  liberty  in 
Christ. 

Thy  daily  bread  and  thy  sjjiritual,  acting  and  inter- 
acting in  all  things  for  man's  good,  for  body  and 
soul,  this  world  and  the  next,  time  and  Eternity! 
A  double  portion  of  thy  daily  bread,  over  and  above 
all  that  thou  wouldst  need  in  thy  six  days,  is  fore- 
ordained and  provided,  for  the  blessed  uses  of  the 
seventh,  as  thy  day  of  rest,  in  accordance  with  and 
enjoyment  of  God's  own  rest;  in  jDrayer  and  jDraise, 
and  the  study  of  His  word,  without  distraction. 
Thou  shalt  have  no  need  of  kindling  a  fire  of  thuie 
own,  in  any  of  thy  habitations;  for  the  Lord  God 
is  thy  sun  and  shield,  and  thy  God  thy  glory.  Ex. 
XXXV.  2,  3.     Is.  Ix.  2. 

Miracle  to  secure  miracle;  time,  to  secure  Eternity; 
the  second  miracle  for  daily  wants,  to  increase  your 
faith  and  gratitude  for  the  first  and  greatest;  in  order 
that  ye  may  at  all  events  not  fail  to  secure  that, 
for   your  spiritual,   everlasting   life  and   blessedness. 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     2yr 

Ex.  xxiii.  25.  God  does  this  to  all  generations,  in 
an  organic  law  of  liuman  society,  for  aU  the  races 
and  families  of  mankind;  enabling  them,  on  their 
six  working  days,  to  jjrovide  for  the  seventh,  "  that 
thou  may  est  rest  on  that  day,  and  thy  poor  and  thy 
stranger'  with  thee."  Ex.  xxiii.  12;  Deut.  v.  14,  15, 
1  Kings,  viii.  41-43. 

In  all  this  we  behold  God  visible,  God  manifest 
in  the  flesh  even  before  the  incarnation  of  Him  who 
said,  "The  poor  ye  have  always  with  you;  Me  ye 
have  not  always;  "  love  them  for  my  sake,  and  that 
ye  may  love  me  forever.  It  is  my  Sabbath  service 
and  missionary   law.     "  Thy   poor   and   thy  stranger 

WITH  THEE.  It  is  MORE  BLESSED  TO  GIVE  THAN  TO  RE- 
CEIVE." See  Ps.  Ixxii.  4,  5,  8,  13,  17;  Is.  xlii.  5-7, 
and  xhx.  8-11,  and  li.  16,  and  ch.  Iv.  and  Ivi.  6,  7; 
with  Acts  xxi.  35,  Mark  xiv.  7,  8,  Deut.  xv.  11.  And 
so  Christ  is  magnified,  and  ever  shall  be,  in  the 
whole  body  of  Divine  Revelation  and  in  all  its  in- 
stitutes, and  in  all  the  members  of  His  body,  whether 
by  life  or  by  death.  For  He  is  "Head  over  aU 
things  to  the  Church,  which  is  His  body,  the  ful- 
ness of  Him  that  filleth  all  in  all," 

The  deniers  of  the  Divine  integrity  and  authority 
of  the  Mosaic  Statutes, — more  superhuman,  more 
supernatural,  than  the  architecture  of  the  heavens, 
— are  shipwrecked  on  the  records  of  these  unacknowl- 


2^/2     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

edged  Sabbath  truths,  as  foolhardy  navigators  against 
sunken  rocks. 

For  the  infinite  benevolence  of  this  Sabbath  Law, 
promulgated  at  the  creation,  estabUshed  among  the 
Hebrews,  connected  and  co-everlasting  with  the  duty 
and  blessedness  of  the  stated  worship  of  God  by 
the  whole  world  through  all  ages,  is  demonstrated, 
even  by  scientific  sagacity,  and  search,  in  the  cor- 
relations of  the  human  body  with  its  earthly  dwelling- 
place;  and  more  yet,  the  older  the  world  grows,  by 
sanitary,  social,  industrial,  economical,  commercial, 
historical  and  spiritual  experience.  It  is  the  only 
stay  and  interruption  of  human  selfishness  and  world- 
liness,  avarice,  ungodliness,  and  oppressive  cruelty, 
divinely  set  in  the  very  Almanac  of  weeks  and  days, 
months  and  years,  and  seven-fold  jubilees;  the  tides 
of  an  angel-watched  Bethesda  of  mercy,  as  regular 
as  day  and  night,  sunrise  and  sunset,  amidst  the 
incessant  toil  and  misery  of  sinful  men. 

If  ever  there  was  or  could  be  a  supernatural  divine 
demonstration  of  infallible  insjjiration,  it  is  this.  It 
is  God  always,  but  never  man,  that  promulgates  and 
supports  this  law;  and  by  a  perpetual  providence, 
sends  the  Sabbath,  wherever  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
is  proclaimed,  with  its  law  of  truth,  liberty  and 
mercy,  indiscriminate,  universal,  for  the  security 
and    universality    of    divine    grace,    for    aU    nations, 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    2'/j 

througli  all  time,  in  Christ,  the  Resukrection  ajsid 
THE  Lite  ! 

'■'■Thy  poor  and  thy  stranger  ivith  thee."  "The  stran- 
ger that  Cometh  out  of  a  far  country; — do  thou,  O 
Lord,  according  to  all  that  the  stranger  calleth  upou 
Thee  for,  that  all  the  people  oe  the  earth  may  knoio 
Thy  name  to  fear  Thee,  as  do  Thy  people."  All  shall 
possess  and  enjoy  the  freedom  of  thy  Sabbath,  and  its 
purposes  and  jDOwers  of  worship  and  of  prayer.  1 
Kings,  viii.  43;  2  Kings,  xis.  19;  Ps.  cii.  18. 

And  then  if  thou  say,  "What  can  we  do  with  such 
immigrations  from  all  nations,  and  how  protect  our- 
selves, supplying  them  ?  God  Himself  shall  give  them 
the  same  Sabbath-miracle  of  all-sufficing  manna,  as 
for  thee;  and  their  keeping  of  the  Sabbath  through 
thy  faithfulness  shall  be  the  security  both  of  their 
prosperity  and  thine. 

In  the  Lordship  of  the  Sabbath  the  government 
of  God  should  be  ui^on  the  shoulders  of  God's  Mes- 
siah, and  of  His  kingdom  there  should  be  no  end; 
nor  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Jews  over  all  nations, 
if  they  themselves  would  but  keej)  the  Sabbath  as 
God  had  given  it.  The  keeping  of  the  Sabbath,  with 
its  law  of  freedom  and  of  love,  was  to  be  the  chariot 
and  covenant  of  dominion  for  the  Jews,  over  all  na- 
tions, and  by  it  they  should  ride  upon  the  high  places 
of  the  earth ;  for  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  had  spoken 


2'j^     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

it;  thy  Eedeemer,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel;  the  God 

OF   THE   WHOLE   EARTH   SHALL   He   BE    CALLED. 

See  the  clauses  of  this  covenant  drawn  out  from 
the  fifty-second  to  the  sixty-second  chapters  of  Isaiah, 
inclusive;  and  compare  these  with  the  ninth  and 
the  forty-second.  The  glory  of  the  Sabbath,  and  the 
proofs  of  a  Divine  Redeemer  in  its  universal  sacred- 
ness  and  dominion,  were  to  be  the  seciu'ity  of  truth 
and  love  and  liberty  to  all  mankind  forever,  through 
His  incarnation,  sirfferings,  crucifixion,  resurrection, 
and  the  interceding,  atoning  efficacy  of  His  own 
blood,  as  our  High  Priest  eternal  in  the  heavens. 

The  Sabbath,  and  the  Temj)le  services,  and  the 
Prayer  of  Solomon,  and  the  "House  of  Prayer  for 
all  nations,"  were  all  typical,  prophetic,  Messianic; 
all  preparations,  by  grace  and  providence,  by  institu- 
tions and  securities  in  them,  for  the  way  and  coming 
of  the  Lord,  and  for  the  emergencies  of  His  redeeming 
ministry  and  mercy.  So,  when  the  Lord  of  the  Sab- 
bath came  to  His  temple  and  His  people,  it  being 
for  Him,  and  His  gospel  uses  of  salvation,  that  that 
"hallowed'''  day  was  given,  and  secured  from  G-od 
for  aU  nations,  He  took  possession  of  it,  authorita- 
tively, openly,  publicly,  as  the  Divine  Lord  of  it, 
for  the  poor  and  needy.  "  To  the  poor  the  gospel 
IS  preached;"  and  the  Sabbath  by  the  Lord  is  guar- 
anteed to  them  in  such  preaching,  as  His  divine  in- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    ^75 

stitution  for  their  good.  And  this  compound  and 
indivisible  universal  miracle  was  to  John  and  to  the 
Jevi^s,  and  to  all  mankind,  the  undeniable  demonstra- 
tion of  the  presence  of  the  Saviour  of  all. 

"  In  every  nation,  ivithout  respect  of  persons,  (see 
Peter's  parenthesis  in  Acts  x.  36),  He  is  Lord  of 
all."  This  is  the  divine  seal.  And  now  we  come 
to  the  opening  of  that  seal,  at  the  very  begin- 
ning of  our  Lord's  ministry,  in  Nazareth,  where 
he  had  been  brought  up.  Then  and  there,  known 
of  all.  He  took  for  the  text  of  His  very  first  sermon, 
in  the  Jewish  synagogue,  Isaiah's  sweet  and  beauti- 
ful silver-trumpeted  notes,  and  said,  reading  from 
the  book  of  the  prophet  Esaias,  delivered  unto  Him, 
publicly,  in  the  synagogue  of  Nazareth,  on  the  Sab- 
bath day,  opening  that  book,  and  finding  the  place 
where  it  was  written, — "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is 
upon  Me,  because  He  hath  anointed  Me  to  preach 
the  gospel  to  the  poor;  He  hath  sent  Me  to  heal 
the  broken-hearted,  to  preach  deliverance  to  the  cap- 
tives, and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  bhnd;  to  set  at 
liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  to  preach  the  accepta- 
ble year  of  the  Lord."  "And  He  closed  the  book, 
and  gave  it  again  to  the  minister,  and  sat  down. 
And  the  eyes  of  all  them  that  were  in  the  synagogue 
were  fastened  on  Him.  And  He  began  to  say  unto 
them,   T/iis  day  is  this  scripture  fidJiUed  in  your  ears." 


2^6     God's  Timepiece f 07''  Mans  Eter^zity. 

It  was  the  laying  of  the  Corner-stone  as  predicted 
in  the  118th  Psahn,  refused  by  the  builders. 

All  the  combining  proi:)hecies  and  providences  of 
God,  for  the  Jews  and  for  mankind,  were  brought 
to  a  culmination  in  this  whole  illuminating  passage 
of  Scripture.  The  moral  and  material,  the  heavenly 
and  earthly,  the  natural  and  supernatural,  the  his- 
torical-human, and  the  fore-ordained,  and  now  ful- 
filled, superhuman  and  divine;  the  testimony  of  God 
and  man  together,  known,  admitted,  indisputable. 

This  day,  this  Sckipture  !  The  Lord's  Day,  the 
Lord's  death,  the  Lord's  resurrection,  the  Lord's 
Gospel,  the  Lord's  Scripture  of  salvation  for  all  man- 
kind! The  Sabbath  for  man;  for  his  physical  and 
mental  constitution  for  Eternity,  for  man  as  he  is,  to 
make  him  better;  for  man  self-deranged,  depraved, 
and  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  to  raise  him  up  to 
holiness  and  life  eternal,  quickened  and  new  created 
in  Christ  Jesus,  the  resruTection  and  the  life. 

The  Lord's  Day,  for  jDroclaiming  to  aU  nations 
through  all  time,  the  Lord's  death,  its  infinite  signifi- 
cance, its  necessity  for  the  soul's  deliverance  from  the 
bondage  and  the  guilt  of  sin,  the  terror  of  death 
eternal;  its  saving  power,  its  constraining  omnipo- 
tence of  grateful  love  and  holy  motive,  and  divine 
confession,   and  communion  of   saints.     Ye  do   show 

FORTH    THE   LoRd's    DEATH,    TILL    He    COME;    aU    the    SOul- 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,     zj"/ 


convincing  and  converting  and  sanctifying  truths 
connected  with  that  death,  and  the  Scriptures  that 
rendered  it  necessaiy  for  eternal  life  to  man  the  sin- 
ner, through  the  grace  of  the  Son  of  God,  the  Sa- 
viour. The  day  of  infinite  glory,  on  earth  and  in 
heaven;  in  which  were  set  all  the  laws  and  means  of 
death  to  sin  and  life  to  God;  the  whole  reckoning 
and  reasoning  of  souls,  dead  indeed  unto  sin,  but 
alive  imto  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  for- 
ever and  ever? 


XXXYI. 


THE   QUALIFICATIONS   OF   THE   NAZARENES   AS   THE 
HIGHEST  LITERARY   CRITICS. 

If  ever  a  set  of  critics  or  textual  experts  were  pre- 
pared and  eager  to  detect  a  word  of  falsehood,  a 
statement  not  unquestionably  accurate,  an  alleged 
authority  having  the  least  doubt,  or  capable  of  sus- 
picion, it  was  these  guardians  in  Judea  of  the  He- 
brew oracles.  And  they  were  the  same  books,  the 
same  chapters  and  verses,  the  same  minutely  scru- 
tinized, established  and  appointed  portions  in  all  the 
synagogues  in  the  land.  There  was  not  a  rabbi  or 
scribe  or  lawyer  with  the  key  of  knowledge  any- 
where from  Memphis  to  Babylon,  from  Alexandria  to 


2^8     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

Jerusalem,  but  knew  where  the  roll  of  Isaiah's  in- 
disputable prophecies  began  and  ended;  not  one 
elder  of  a  synagogue  but  could  and  would  have  de- 
tected it  instantly  if  Christ  had  mistaken  or  misplaced 
book  or  text,  or  misquoted  one  of  the  sacred  books, 
or  misnamed  its  author;  much  more  had  He  inter- 
polated a  single  sentence,  and  still  more,  had  He 
forged  a  whole  chapter,  and  apphed  it  to  Himself 
as  the  writing  of  God,  that  had  been  in  existence 
as  a  j)i'ophecy  more  than  eight  hundred  years,  and 
was  now  in  His  person   appropriated   and  fulfilled. 

But  of  all  tribunals  to  which  Christ  might  proclaim 
the  divine  Word,  the  synagogue  of  these  Nazarenes 
would  be  the  keenest  to  detect  and  the  sharpest  and 
most  eager  to  expose  and  punish  a  misstatement. 
They  had  a  sectarian  and  bhnd-hearted  prepossession 
and  jealousy,  so  despotic,  fanatical,  and  irresistible  in 
behalf  of  the  Jewish  national  traditions,  and  interpre- 
tations of  a  proud  worldly  dominion,  by  which  the 
letter  and  Spirit  of  the  Word  of  God  had  been  cov- 
ered up,  as  by  palimpsests  of  human  authority,  that 
nothing  could  have  lulled  their  suspicions,  or  quieted 
their  rage,  at  the  discovery  of  an  infidel  disobedience. 

It  was  as  when  the  lava  of  Vesuvius  had  over- 
whelmed and  buried  the  cities  and  fields  of  Pompeii 
and  Herculaneum,  incinerating  the  literature,  and 
erasing  all  the  title-deeds  and  bounds  of  possession. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     2'jg 


and  by  process  of  ages  creating  a  new  soil  and  vege- 
tation. So  that,  if  the  old  inhabitants  and  owners 
had  risen  from  their  ashes,  and  laid  claim  to  the  land, 
they  would  have  been  put  to  death  as  invaders  and 
robbers.  Even  so,  and  with  a  ferocity  of  patriotic 
rage,  would  these  people  of  Nazareth  defend  their 
faith  against  the  pretensions  of  Christ,  as  the  forgery 
of  a  traitor  and  blasphemer,  worthy  of  death.  These 
traditionary  smugglers  and  Thugs  of  Palestine  kept 
possession  of  their  den  and  its  fortunes,  in  the  name 
of  the  Most  High.  They  had  a  Tarpeian  HiU  for 
Lj^nch  law,  by  the  mob  of  enraged  Traditionists. 

There  are  learned  men  and  modern  critics  to-day 
maintaining  that  such  extreme  prepossession  and  con- 
fidence on  the  human  side  of  evidence  by  tradition, 
are  the  best  possible  quahfications  for  judging  the  as- 
sertions and  proofs  of  the  supernatural  and  divine. 
These  Nazarenes  were  so  fierfect  and  just  in  this 
method  of  criticism,  that  they  swept  everything  be- 
fore it;  put  it  in  the  place  of  trial,  judge  and  jury. 
"  We  have  a  law, — our  Scriptures,  and  for  their  in- 
terpretation, our  traditions; — and  by  that  law  He 
ought  to  die,  because  He  makes  Himself  the  Son 
of  God  and  our  lawgiver,  and  the  Sabbath,  and  the 
Temple  and  its  worshiiD,  His.  And  this  He  says  to  us, 
who  know  His  father  and  mother  and  brethren  fi-om 
their  infancy." 


28o     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

It  was  so  plain  a  case,  that  they  could  not  wait  for 
the  slow  procedures  of  justice  by  witnesses,  but  their 
righteous  indignation  could  be  satisfied  only  with 
the  swiftness  and  certainty  of  a  violent  mob-murder. 
This  pretender  had  set  Himself  on  the  highest  pin- 
nacle of  the  Temple  of  Jehovah,  and  they  would  cast 
Him  down  instantly  in  the  act  of  such  blasphemy. 
What  need  had  they  of  any  witnesses?  The  prophets, 
and  especially  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah,  which  He  had 
perverted,  were  enough.  The  whole  World  knew  what 
those  were,  and  every  Hebrew  of  the  nation  was  ready 
to  die  for  them,  if  need  be ;  how  much  more  to  punish 
with  the  highest  penalty  of  the  law  so  daring  a  blas- 
phemy of  their  sacredness ! 

And  now  we  note,  as  powerfully  illuminating  and 
confirming  the  testimomj  of  all  the  references  to  Isaiah  in 
the  four  Gospels,  and  in  the  Acts,  and  in  Peter's  and  Paul's 
Epistles,  the  singular  minuteness  of  the  record  of  the 
conflict  of  these  Nazarenes  against  Christ, — the  par- 
ticulars, microscopically  photographed  as  to  the  proof, 
the  items  and  the  reception  of  our  Lord's  first  sermon; 
the  calm  and  serene  truthfulness  and  dehberation  with 
which  He  is  said  to  have  taken  every  step,  spoken 
every  word,  and  with  the  most  intense  watchfulness 
of  all  the  assembly. 

Let  us  recapitulate  the  points;  for  there  is  no  other 
recital  more  remarkable  for  verification. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     2S1 

First,  He  came  to  Nazareth;  (2),  He  had  been 
brought  up  there;  (3),  He  went  into  the  synagogue 
on  the  Sabbath  day,  as  His  custom  was;  (4),  He  stood 
up  to  read;  (5),  the  book  of  Isaiah  the  Prophet  was 
dehvered  to  Him;  (6),  He  opened  that  book;  (7),  He 
found  the  place  where  what  He  would  read  was  writ- 
ten; (8),  He  closed  the  book;  (9),  He  gave  it  again  to 
the  minister;  (10),  He  sat  down;  (11),  the  eyes  of  all 
in  the  synagogue  were  fastened  on  Him;  (12),  He  be- 
gan by  saying,  This  day  is  ihis  Scripture  fulfilled  in 
your  ears;  (13),  all  bare  Him  witness  and  wondered. 

There  was  a  divine  purpose  in  this  minute,  life- 
enacting,  vivid,  reproducing  tracery  of  words,  char- 
acters, witnesses,  actors,  scenery,  the  synagogue,  the 
Sabbath,  the  book,  the  passage,  the  result. 

Nothing  in  the  Gospel  of  Mark,  or  any  other  Gos- 
pel, presents  so  minute  and  microscopic  a  tracery;  so 
fuU  of  life  and  reality,  and  sketched  as  if  a  reporter 
for  the  Sanhedrim  had  set  it  down,  as  material  for 
the  trial  and  conviction  of  the  criminal.  For  such 
was  Christ  instantly  adjudged  and  condemned  to  be, 
by  the  tenor  of  His  own  discourse ;  as  was  afterwards 
His  first  martyr,  Stephen,  when  Saul  also,  with  the 
same  fanaticism,  was  consenting  unto  his  death. 

That  last  point,  all  bake  Him  witness.  There  was  no 
surprise  as  if  an  unknown  or  interpolated  chapter  or 
passage  had  assailed  their  ears,  no  suspicion,  no  un- 


282     Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

easiness,  but  unmingled  gratification  and  assent  at  the 
gracious  words  of  tlie  well-known  proj)het,  and  of  Je- 
sus in  reading  them,  with  such  divine  and  loving  em- 
phasis and  intonations.  The  fulfillment  of  them  was 
what  they  rejoiced  in,  until  He  came  to  the  announce- 
ment that  they  belonged  not  to  the  Jews  only,  but  to  all 
mankind ;  and  not  for  their  temporal  or  national  ag- 
grandizement, but  for  the  salvation  of  the  soul;  for 
the  poor,  the  broken-hearted,  the  bruised  of  sin  and 
Satan. 

Had  He  proposed  to  them  to  take  up  arms  for 
Him,  as  the  King  of  Grlory,  and  to  foUow  Him  to 
victory  for  the  dominion  of  the  Jews  over  the  whole 
earth,  they  would  have  done  it;  would  have  acknowl- 
edged Him  as  the  Messiah.  But  otherwise,  when  they 
came  to  understand  what  He  meant,  the  asserted  ful- 
fillment of  that  great  j)rediction  of  Isaiah  in  Himself, 
and  for  Himself,  the  son  of  the  carpenter,  as  the  Son 
of  God,  was  a  blasphemy  that  changed  then*  satisfac- 
tion instantly  into  the  hatred  and  the  fire  of  hell. 

Seeing  all  this,  we  no  longer  wonder  at  Nathanael's 
question.  Can  any  good  thing  come  out  of  Nazareth  ? 
But  it  was  God's  infinite,  providential  wisdom,  that 
by  these  very  Nazarenes,  who  had  known  Christ  from 
His  chUdhood,  the  testimony  of  the  jorophet  Isaiah, 
on  which  Christ  rested  all  His  claims,  should  be  con- 
firmed beyond  question,  as  that  of  the  very  Scriptures 


God's  Tivtepiece for  Maris  Eternity.     28 j 

of  God,  the  undisputed  oracles  of  God,  committed  to 
the  Jews  for  safe-keeping,  from  the  beginning. 

The  same  argument  applies  with  equally  crushing 
force  to  the  accusations  brought  against  the  books 
of  Moses  quoted  by  our  Lord,  and  against  the  whole 
Pentateuch,  as  a  mass  of  documents,  interpolated 
from  beginning  to  end,  and  not  only  never  written 
by  Moses,  but  never  known  by  the  Hebrews  them- 
selves till  near  a  thousand  years  after  the  age  of  his 
existence. 

And  yet  there  are  Christian  teachers  at  this  day  so 
liberal,  and  proud  of  such  charity  for  scejitical  writers, 
that  they  aver  that  the  rejection  of  Moses  as  inspired 
may  be  consistent  with  a  truly  sincere  and  religious 
belief  and  character.  But  they  fail  to  ask  or  to  an- 
swer as  to  the  kind  of  character  that  such  belief  makes 
Christ  Himself  to  have  possessed,  and  as  to  the  crime  of 
imposing  such  a  forgery  upon  the  world,  as  the  very 
foundation  of  the   Word  of  God. 

For  the  Pentateuch,  from  Genesis  to  Deuteronomy, 
is  just  that  foundation,  and  verbally  inspired  of  God 
by  Moses,  as  assured  to  us  by  Christ;  without  whom, 
and  whose  Dei'y  as  the  Son  of  God,  there  is  no  proof 
of  truth  or  inspu-ation  in  any  part  of  the  Scriptures, 
from  Genesis  to  the  Apocalypse. 

Now  mark  the  strength  of  this  demonstration,  as 
aofainst  the  criticism  of  modern  Destructives  affirming 


284     God's  Tiviepiece for  Mans  Eternity. 

that  the  prophesies  of  Isaiah  quoted  by  Christ,  and 
evidenced  by  the  Synagogue  of  the  Nazarenes,  and 
the  behef  of  the  whole  nation,  were  an  imposture; 
the  forgery  of  some  anonymous  villain  assiuning 
Isaiah's  name  and  authority.  If  these  critics  had 
been  there  in  Nazareth,  thus  blaspheming  the  He- 
brew Scriptures,  they  would  themselves  have  been 
hurried  to  the  brow  of  the  mountain  and  flung  down 
headlong.  The  Isaiah  that  Christ  quoted  was  the 
Isaiah  of  the  only  Hebrew  Bible,  that  ever  Greeks  or 
Jews  or  Samaritans  knew  or  believed;  the  only  Script- 
ures that  ever  God  gave  to  the  people  in  Hebrew; 
the  very  books  of  Scripture  translated  for  the  whole 
world  in  Greek,  some  two  hundred  years  before  the 
Son  of  God  came. 

This  being  the  case,  if  Christ  had  forged  a  single 
passage,  that  would  have  been  the  crime,  for  which 
they  would  have  put  Him  to  death.  If  he  did  not 
forge  the  j^assage,  but  the  whole  people  accepted  it 
as  Isaiah's  by  inspiration  of  God,  then  these  critics 
stand  pilloried  as  in  the  stocks;  and  instead  of  being 
treated  as  Christian  scholars  and  believers,  are  worthy 
only  of  the  scorn  of  all  Christendom.  For  under  pre- 
tence of  accurate  and  unprejudiced  investigation  and 
"  scholarship,"  such  as  never  before  was  known  in 
the  world,  and  a  jealousy  for  truth,  superior  to  that 
of  the  "World's  Saviour,  and  a  subhme  intuitive  dis- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    28^ 

cernment  of  falsehood  such  as  He  never  possessed, 
they  put  forth  in  behalf  of  all  mankind,  on  their  own 
assertion,  without  one  particle  of  fact,  or  truth,  or 
history,  or  even  tradition,  an  accusation  against  the  very 
Isaiah  as  a  liar,  whom  Christ  appealed  to  and  quoted  as 
the  Projjhet  appointed  and  inspired  of  God  to  prepare  for 
His  coming;  and  consequently  a  charge  against  Christ 
Himself,  of  being  base  enough  and  blasphemous 
enough  to  allege  that  particular  passage  of  those  lies, 
lohich  He  must  have  kyxown  to  have  been  forged,  in  proof 
of  His  own  mission  and  authority  from  heaven,  as 
the  Son  of  God  and  Redeemer  of  mankind ! 

There  they  stand, — these  "  Higher  Literary  Critics," 
these  rational  detectives  of  the  modern  age, — con- 
fronting Christ,  with  "Books  of  Origins,"'  traditions, 
conjectures,  and  chronological  eras  of  their  own  de- 
vising, and  lives  of  the  Saviour  of  the  world  and 
His  apostles,  written  to  order,  accordingly;  denying, 
at  the  outset,  the  supernatural,  infaUible  inspiration 
of  the  Scriptures,  as  impossible. 

What  is  to  be  said  of  the  multitude  of  modern 
commentaries,  exegetical  essays,  and  volumes  of  "the 
progressive  theology  of  the  future,"  written  on  these 
principles,  and  not  unfrequently  commended  by  pro- 
fessors of  Biblical  Exposition  for  the  education  of 
students  for  the  Christian  ministry?  For  such  wri- 
ters (even  the  most  learned  and  genial  of  them)  are 


286     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

worse  than  tlie  peddlers  of  plague-stricken  garments 
from  the  purlieus  of  rag-markets  in  Oriental  Bazaars. 
If  their  postulates  are  believed  by  themselves,  they 
are  dehberately,  "  as  learned  experts,"  exj)ending  the 
whole  energy  and  subtlety  of  their  faculties  and  life 
on  the  exjDOsition  and  circulation  of  the  productions 
of  liars  and  forgers,  as  being  the  foremost  treasures 
of  the  human  intellect,  and  worthy  to  command  the 
services  of  the  greatest  scholars  in  the  world,  in  bring- 
ing out  the  exact  meaning  of  their  Ues,  for  the  sat- 
isfaction of  aU  generations.* 

*  Dr.  John  Pye  Smith,  eminent  alike  for  his  piety,  learn- 
ing, and  candor,  quotes,  in  the  second  volume  of  his  "Scrip- 
ture Testimony  to  the  Messiah,"  p.  289,  John  Fred.  Eohr's  Let- 
ters on  Rationalism,  published  in  1813,  as  an  example  of  the 
way  in  which  not  only  the  Old  but  the  New  Testament  might 
with  little  trouble,  and  very  plausibly,  be  stripped  of  every- 
thing supernatural;  and  even  the  doctrine  of  a  future  state, 
under  any  conception  of  it,  be  got  rid  of.  And  he  adds, 
"These  are  the  principles  which  have  been  for  several  years 
promulgated  in  the  theses,  lectures,  annotations,  and  still 
more  elaborate  works,  of  some  of  the  men  who  hold  forth 
themselves,  and  compliment  each  other,  as  the  enlightened  and 
liberal  scEiPTxmE  ceitics  of  Germany." 

"Yet  unwittingly,"  (says  Dr.  F.  W.  Upham,  in  his  recently 
published  volume  of  "Thoughts  on  the  Holt  Gospels,"  by 
the  author  of  "The  Wise  Men,  and  who  they  were,")  "and 
against  their  wiU,  they  are  of  some  little  use.     For  where  the 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    28y 


XXXYII. 

A  PLENARY  VERBAL  INSPIRATION,  NECESSARY  TO 
SUSTAIN  AND  JUSTIFY  THE  APPEAL  OF  CHRIST 
TO   THE   OLD   TESTAMENT   AND   MOSES. 

Whatever  of  divine  revelation  there  is  any  proof 
of  in  this  world  is  compi-ehended  in  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments,  and  embraces  the  Old  as  the  whole 
possibility  of  the  New,  and  the  New  as  the  whole 
and  sole  demonstration  of  the  Old,  in  and  through 
THE   Divine  personality    of    Jesus   Christ.      The   ap- 

sceptic's  finger  points  in  scorn,  there  the  treasure  is  concealed. 
As  these  sorcerers  go  up  and  down,  peering  about,  muttering 
their  curses,  and  weaving  their  spells  in  the  holy  land,  the 
divining  rods  in  their  unhallowed  hands  bend  downwards, 
where,  beneath  the  surface,  are  hidden  veins  of  water  and 
seeds  of  gold." 

The  names  and  writings  of  Semler,  Paulus,  De  Wette,  Strauss, 
Baur,  Ewald,  Kvienen,  Keim,  Benan,  Colenso,  Smith  of  Scot- 
land, Davidson,  and  others,  have  become  familiar  in  England 
and  America.  "In  the  meantime,"  says  Dr.  Pye  Smith,  "the 
caution  administered  by  the  early  Olu'istian  writers  may  prove 
to  be  the  wisest  and  best,  namelj  ;  let  those  who  regard  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  a  figurative  Saviour,  a  figurative  Law- 
giver, King,  and  Judge,  beware,  lest,  in  the  day  of  their  ex- 
tremity,  they  find  only  a  figurative  salvation!" 


288     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

pearance  and  utterances  of  such  a  Being  in  the  world 
demonstrate  all  things  in  the  Scriptures  to  which  He 
ajDpeals.  The  divine  characteristics  seen  and  known 
in  Him  explain  and  fulfil  all  things.  There  is  no  mar- 
vel or  miracle  to  be  compared  in  self-demonstration 
of  reahty  and  glory  with  Him,  the  divine  centre,  to 
which  aU  orbs  of  intelligence  gravitate.  All  the  mir- 
acles of  the  Bible  are  but  as  commas  or  semi-colons, 
in  the  Volume  of  which  He  is  the  sum  and  sun,  the 
jDcrsonal  indwelling  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily. 

There  is  no  more  possibility  of  a  preconception  or 
forgery  of  His  appearance  or  knowledge  of  its  mean- 
ing, than  there  could  have  been  that  an  ape  should 
have  created  the  sun  in  our  solar  system,  or  begotten 
a  Newton  to  understand  it.  God  alone  could  fore- 
ordain, God  only  could  predict,  and  only  God,  in  the 
fulness  of  time,  could  make  manifest  the  glory,  re- 
cording it  in  words. 

The  assurance  of  a  verbal  inspiration  was  given  to 
Moses  at  the  outset  of  his  mission.  "  I  will  be  with 
thy  mouth." — Ex.  iii.  13-18,  and  iv.  12.  And  when 
it  seemed  to  him  impossible  to  speak  for  God,  being 
not  eloquent,  but  slow  of  si:)eech,  a  laggard  with  his 
tongue,  God  comforts  his  infirmity  and  consequent 
seK-distrust,  by  giving  him  Aaron  to  share  the  re- 
sponsibility, "  Is  not  Aaron  the  Levite  thy  brother  ? 
I  know  that  he  can  speak  well."    And  it  is  added. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eter^iity.    28  g 

•with  wliat  an  exquisite  touch  of  nature  in  the  recital, 
"  Behold  he  cometh  forth  to  meet  thee,  and  when  he 
seeth  thee,  he  will  be  glad  in  his  heart." — Ex.  iv.  14. 

And  then  it  is  added,  "Thou  shalt  speak  unto 
him,  and  put  words  in  his  mouth:  and  I  will  be  with 
thy  mouth,  and  with  his  mouth,  and  will  teach  you 
what  ye  shall  do.  And  he  shall  be  thy  spokesman 
unto  the  people:  he  shall  be  to  thee  instead  of  a 
mouth,  and  thou  shalt  be  to  him  instead  of  God." 
Ex.  iv.  10-16. 

What  a  graj)hic  description,  thus  early  in  the  ages, 
of  the  nature  of  divine  inspiration,  for  the  communi- 
cation of  the  purposes  of  divine  love  and  mercy  to 
mankind ! 

"  ^^^lo  hath  made  man's  mouth  ?  or  who  maketh 
the  dumb,  or  the  deaf,  or  the  seeing,  or  the  bhnd? 
have  not  I,  the  Lord?  Now  therefore,  go,  and  I 
wiU  be  with  thy  mouth,  and  teach  thee  what  thou 
shalt  do."— Ex.  iv.  10-16.  God  Himself  would  in- 
spire the  words  of  Moses,  and  direct  his  actions; 
moutb»  and  hands  were  God's,  if  Moses  would  wholly 
trust  in  Him. 

Coidd  there  possibly  be  a  more  satisfactory  and 
instructive  delineation,  a  light  to  guide  our  steps, 
from  Moses  to  Christ,  and  from  Genesis  to  the  Apoc- 
alypse, But  if  such  a  plenary  and  minute  inspira- 
tion was   deemed  necessary  in  God's  dealings  with 


2go     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

the  Egyptians,  and  witli  His  own  peoiDle,  to  bring 
them  forth,  from  their  bondage  to  a  rejoicing  free- 
dom and  confidence  in  G-od,  how  much  more  in  all 
Grod's  messages  for  the  redemption  of  all  mankind 
from  sin  and  everlasting  misery!  How  much  more 
where  the  change  of  a  single  word  might  make  all 
the  difference  between  spiritual  life  and  death ! 

In  Habakkuk  ii.  2-4,  "  The  Lord  said,  write  the 
Vision,  and  make  it  plain,  that  he  may  run  that  read- 
eth  it.  The  jnd  shall  live  by  His  faith; "  and  as  in  1 
Kings,  viii.  24,  and  2  Sam.  xxiii.  2,  3,  concerning 
David;  and  Deut.  xviii.  18,  concerning  Christ;  "  /  ivill 
put  my  xoords  in  His  mouth;"  so  in  the  eighteenth 
and  nineteenth  chapters  of  Leviticus,  (both  chapters  be- 
ginning with  the  words  "And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Mo- 
ses "),  the  statutes  named  are  sealed  with  these  words, 
"  /  am  the  Lord  your  God,"  twenty-two  times  in  twenty- 
three  verses;  the  whole  closing  with  this  divine  rule: 
"Therefore  shall  ye  observe  aU  my  statutes  and 
all  my  judgments,  and  do  them:  I  am  the  Lord, 
your  God."  The  instances  of  minute  particulars 
with  this  formula  of  asseveration,  /  the  Lord,  are  so 
reiterated,  that  the  seals  of  insiDiration  glitter  and 
blaze  with  every  movement  of  the  texts,  as  the  stones 
in  the  Urim  and  Thummim  supernaturally  burning 
on  the  breastplate  of  judgment  worn  by  the  Jewish 
high  priest. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Alaii  s  Etei^nity.    2gi 


From  the  Pentateuch  down  to  Malachi  these  char- 
acteristics of  unity  and  inspiration  are  indisputable, 
inseparable,  positively  declared,  and  illustrated  and 
proved  by  the  history,  as  clearly  and  irresistibly  as 
the  history  by  the  contents  of  the  j)rophecies,  and  the 
conflicts  between  God's  holiness  and  mercy  and  man's 
depravity  and  despair.  The  argument  is  so  powerful, 
so  conclusive,  that  it  can  be  met  only  by  conjecture 
and  assertion,  as  a  road  cut  through  mountains  by 
dynamite;  or  the  method  of  the  Brahmin  trampling 
under  foot  the  instrument  that  convinced  his  reason 
against  his  will. 

The  prophecies  of  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel  are  as  im- 
pregnable in  these  evidences  as  the  books  of  Moses 
and  of  the  Mmor  prophets,  and  are  sealed  with  the 
same  seals.  "  "Whatsoever  I  command  thee,  thou 
shalt  speak.  I  have  put  My  words  in  thy  mouth. 
Speak  unto  all  the  cities  of  Judah,  kings,  princes, 
priests  and  peojDle,  aU  that  I  command  thee.  Behold, 
I  will  make  My  words  in  thy  mouth  fire.  Write 
ALL  THE  WORDS  that  I  have  i^poken  unto  thee  in  a 
book,  and  read  the  words  of  the  Lord  in  the  ears  of 
the  people." — And  to  Ezekiel,  "All  My  words  that, I 
shall  speak  unto  thee  receive  in  thine  heart  and  hear 
with  thine  ears,  and  tell  the  people,  thus  saith  the 
Lord,  whether  they  will  hear  or  whether  they  will 
forbear." 


2g2     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

Tlie  twenty -third  chapter  of  Jeremiah  is  such  an 
intensely  vivid  and  wi'athful  comparison  and  contrast 
between  true  and  false  prophets  and  teachers,  "be- 
tween the  prophets  whom  God  hath  inspired,  and  to 
whom  God  hath  spoken,  and  those  that  speak  a  vision 
of  their  own  heart,  and  not  out  of  the  mouth  of  the 
Lord;"  it  is  a  description  so  terrible  and  convincing 
as  to  the  crime  of  denying  or  forging  or  falsely  inter- 
preting the  words  of  a  divine  revelation,  that  it  might 
stand  as  an  indictment  of  God  against  the  volumes  of 
the  rationalism  and  higher  criticism  of  our  day;  "the 
prophets  of  the  deceit  of  their  own  hearts,  by  their 
dreams  which  they  tell  every  man  to  his  neighl:)ors; 
the  prophets  that  steal  my  words,  saith  the  Lord,  and 
put  their  own  in  the  place  of  them,  and  prophesy  false 
dreams  and  tell  them,  and  cause  my  people  to  err  by 
their  lies  and  their  lightness." 

"  I  have  not  sent  these  prophets,  yet  they  ran:  I  have 
not  spoken  to  them,  yet  they  prophesied.  But  if  they 
had  stood  in  my  counsel,  and  had  caused  my  pecfple  to 
hear  my  words,  then  they  should  have  turned  them  from 
their  evil  way,  and  from  the  evil  of  their  doings.  The 
prophet  that  hath  a  dream,  let  him  tell  a  dream;  and 
he  that  hath  my  word,  let  him  speak  my  word  faith- 
fully. What  is  the  chaff  to  the  wheat  ?  saith  the 
Lord."— Jer.  xxiii.  21,  22,  28. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     2gj 

In  the  records  of  the  historians,  and  in  the  books  of 
the  prophets,  we  have  the  same  co-ordinate  and  suc- 
cessive historic  demonstrations,  growing  out  of  and 
returning  upon  the  root-ramifications  of  the  divine 
insjpiration,  with  a  system  of  nerves,  arteries,  veins, 
muscles,  intercalated,  articulated,  synchronized,  mu- 
tually dependent  and  sustaining,  in  a  manner  so  intri- 
cate, and  yet  so  plain,  so  indisputable,  that  the  most 
exquisite  and  skilfvd  anatomists  of  the  human  frame 
can  not  find  in  man  more  irresistible  proofs  of  unity, 
interdependence,  assimilation,  and  growth,  from  in- 
fancy to  manhood.  So  that  in  fact  you  could  no 
more  take  away  the  proof  of  divine  inspiration,  and 
leave  any  living  truth,  than  you  could  cut  out  from 
a  living  man,  his  spine  and  the  fibres  running  from 
it,  and  leave  life  or  activity  in  the  corjDse,  that  falls 
prone  instantly  and  returns  to  dust.  The  death  and 
worthlessness  that  ensue  upon  the  completed  work  of 
these  destructives  and  dislocators  are  demonstrations 
at  once  of  the  preceding  life  and  preciousness,  and 
of  the  actual  crime  of  murder;  just  as  the  corjyus 
delicti  and  the  arsenic  found  in  the  body,  are  proofs 
of  the  means  and  maUce  of  the  murderer. 

Their  arguments  drawn  from  the  strata  of  human 
lying  and  depravity  in  aU  literature,  against  the  di- 
vine origin  and  inspiration  of  Genesis,  Deuteronomy, 
and  John's  Gospel,  their  pretences  of  the  discovery 


2g^     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

and  detection  of  forgeries,  falsehoods,  interjDolations, 
are  as  if  a  hewer  of  stones  or  a  bliud-drain-builder 
should  grope  in  the  sewers  of  St.  Peter's  Cathedral,  to 
prove  that  Michael  Angelo  never  was  the  architect. 
The  argument  is,  in  effect,  merely  that  of  Hume; 
all  men  are  jjroved  by  all  human  experience  to  be 
Uars ;  therefore,  God's  words,  since  they  must  be 
conveyed  through  human  beings,  and  in  human  lan- 
guage to  mankind,  are  only  man's  lies.  AH  histor- 
ical investigation  and  analogy  especially  as  to  re- 
ported divine  "  Origins,"  necessitates  this  conclusion. 
But  the  blasphemy  of  this  logic  is  presented  by  John 
in  the  terrific  declaration,  "  He  that  believeth  not  God 
HATH  MADE  HIM  A  liak;  because  he  beheveth  not  the 
record  that  God  gave  of  His  Son." — I  John  v.  10.  Where 
was  that  record  ?  For  answer,  take  only  Clu-ist's  own 
words,  undisputed,  to  the  Jews.  "  Search  the  Scrip- 
tures; for  they  are  they  that  testifj^  of  Me." — John 
v.  39.  Did  this  apjDeal  comj^rehend  the  writings  of 
Moses?  "There  is  one  that  accuseth  you,  even  Moses, 
IN  WHOM  YE  TRUST.  For  had  ye  believed  Moses,  ye 
would  have  believed  Me:  eok  he  weote  of  Me.  But 
if  ye  believe  not  his  writings  how  shall  ye  believe 
My  words?" — John  v.  45-47.  Moses  and  Christ,  and 
THEIR  WORDS,  staud  together  as  God's  witnesses  and 
God's  words,  for  the  judgment  of  the  Great  Day. 
John  xii.  48. 


God!s  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity.    2gs 


Everywhere  the  testimony  of  Christ  to  the  author- 
ity, authenticity,  and  perfect  truth  and  credibiHty  of 
Moses,  with  all  his  recitals,  is  the  same.  And  if  there 
had  been  a  possibility  in  Christ's  day,  of  undermining 
the  authority  of  Moses,  of  charging  hun  with  impost- 
ure, or  any  other  prophet  or  writer  with  the  false 
personation  of  Moses,  speaking  lies  under  Moses' 
mask,  it  would  have  been  done.  And  this  would  have 
destroyed  the  influence  and  authority  of  Christ  at  the 
outset,  and  forever. 


XXXVIII. 

THE  LAMB  THE  LIGHT  THEREOF  AND  GOD  THE  GLORY 
—REFERENCES  TO  REASON  AND  CONSCIENCE  IN 
THE  SIGHT  OF  GOD— HUMILITY  BEFORE  GOD  THE 
ONLY  SECURITY  OF  REASON  IN  THE  EXAMINATION 
OF  GOD'S  WORD  — GOD'S  WORD  THE  TEACHER; 
REASON  THE  LEARNER— THE  PRAYER  OF  BACON 
—THE  EXPERIENCE  OF  COLERIDGE. 

The  life  and  death  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  as  the  Lamb 
of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,  are 
the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  all  that  has  any  evi- 
dence whatever  of  being  God's  truth;  for  there  is  no 
moral  truth  on  earth,  no  explanation  of  earth's  dark- 


2g6     Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  E^rniiy. 


ness  but  commences  there.  It  is  the  soui-ce  and 
hopeful  spring  of  all  truth,  purity,  disinterestedness, 
love,  submission  to  God's  ^vill,  self-knowledge,  dis- 
covery of  the  evd.  of  sin,  regeneration  out  of  it  into 
the  lost  likeness  of  God,  the  attainment  of  hoUness 
and  heaven. 

So  that  there  is  no  possibility  of  any  faith  in  God, 
any  beUef  in  God's  goodness,  any  dehverance  from 
sin,  any  relief  from  the  pressure  of  eternal  demoniac 
mystery  and  evil,  bearing  the  world  down  to  despair, 
if  we  do  not  accej)t  of  Christ  as  God's  Interpreter  of 
God's  Word  and  of  Christ's  endorsement  and  explana- 
tion of  the  book  of  Genesis,  as  the  beginning  of  God's 
revelation  of  divine  truth  and  mercy  to  mankind. 

Here  then  we  see  plainly  the  law  of  a  vahd,  just, 
and  truthful  examination  and  cross-examination  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  of  the  witnesses  in  regard  to  them, 
and  of  the  mysteries  contained  in  them.  Chi'ist  is  our 
Divine  Interpreter,  who  only  can  make  them  plain. 
And  as  He  gives  them  to  us,  so  He  stands  with  us  be- 
fore their  transparencies,  their  scrolls  of  light,  their 
fathomless  perspectives,  and  directs  our  sight,  our 
points  of  vision,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  may  take  from 
them  the  things  of  Christ  and  show  them  to  our  souls. 
He  repeats  His  rule  of  interpretation,  for  our  teaching 
of  them  to  others,  by  having  them  jDassed  through  our 
own  experience.     "Not  handling  the  Word  of  God 


God's  Timepiece  for  Ma7is  Eternity.     2gy 

deceitfully,  but  by  manifestation  of  the  truth  com- 
mending ourselves  to  every  marl's  conscience  in  the  sight 
of  God." 

For  it  is  impossible  to  appeal  to  conscience  as  a  safe 
judge  in  any  thing  moral,  except  under  submission  to 
God's  Word.  Conscience  is  worthless,  just  so  far  as 
the  Reason  is  warped  or  darkened  by  sin,  as  it  inevi- 
tably is,  in  a  selfish  creature.  But  all  sinful  creatures 
are  selfish,  and  all  the  faculties  of  the  soul  partake 
of  that  demoralization  and  darkness.  Reason  itself 
being  under  the  same  bias,  and  therefore  incaj)able 
of  a  perfectly  disinterested  and  infallible  judgment 
in  regard  to  the  divine  revelation  of  law  and  its 
sequences  for  man  through  eternity.  It  is  neither  a 
judge  of  God's  law  written  on  the  heart,  nor  of  God's 
law  revealed  in  the  Scriptiires;  much  less  can  it  de- 
cide concerning  the  last  by  its  ignorance  and  mis 
conceptions  concerning  the  first.  Man  having  fallen, 
God  alone  can  teach  him  what  he  has  fallen  from, 
and  what  is  right  and  true  divinely  and  forever. 

Hence  the  dangerous  tendency  of  such  an  af- 
firmation as  has  been  made  in  a  Symposium  in 
the  North  American  Review  concerning  the  authority 
of  inspiration,  "that  no  law  even  from  God  can 
have  any  moral  force  unless  it  requires  such  perfec- 
tion as  man  exacts  from  himsef.  Were  we  to  sup- 
pose that  God  should  command  any  thing  of  man 


2g8     God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eter7iity. 

which  eillier  in  kind  or  degree  man  does  not  impose 
vpon  himself,  His  command  would  have  no  binding 
force.  A  conflict  would  at  once  arise  between  the 
personal  influence  or  behest  of  the  Creator,  and  the 
moral  law  which  the  creature  finds  wi'itten  on  his 
own  heart.  In  such  a  conflict  the  creature,  lite  An- 
tigone is  bound  to  obey  the  law  of  goodness,  which 
he  dares  not  ofl'end,  however  much  he  may  tremble 
before  the  wrath  of  the  Sovereign  who  has  power 
to  kill  and  make  alive." 

Who  but  the  Creator  can  tell  a  fallen  creature 
what  that  law  was  and  is,  or  can  interpret  infallibly 
its  requisitions,  and  show  the  creature  how  he  has 
departed  from  it  and  pervei'ted  it,  putting  evil  for 
good  and  good  for  evU?  His  own  reason,  perverted, 
exacts  from  himself  as  perfection  that  which  in  the 
sight  of  Grod  and  by  the  judgment  of  His  "Word  is 
not  only  imperfection,  but  crime.  "Immortal  man," 
said  Dr.  McLeod  in  India,  "is  seldom  so  degraded 
as  not  to  seek  some  apparently  good  reason,  and  in 
the  holy  name  of  rehgion  too,  for  doing  the  worst 
things.  Thus  the  Thug  strangles  his  victim,  as  he 
prays  to  the  goddess  of  murder;  and  the  member  of 
hereditary  bands  of  robbers  consecrates  his  services 
to  the  goddess  of  rapine."  *  The  same  writer  once 
said,  "  There  are  men  who  no  more  grasp  the  truth 
which  they  seem  to  hold,  than  a  sparrow  grasps  the 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     2gg 

message  passing  through  the  electric  wire  on  which 
it  perches."  They  do  not  grasp  it  as  the  truth  of 
God,  or  an  inspiration  in  it,  but  an  intviition  of 
man's  own  discoveiy.  These  speculative  critics  re- 
semble the  sparrows  on  the  telegraph  wire.  They 
are  saying  one  to  another,  AVe  are  the  judges;  there 
is  no  inspiration  unless  it  finds  us  coinciding  with 
it,  and  the  ultimate  judge  is  our  reason. 

"Was  Adam's  reason,  after  he  had  fallen,  the  same 
infallible  iiltimate  judge  of  a  divine  revelation,  or  of 
the  truth,  and  meaning  and  intent  of  God's  Word,  as 
before?  Coiild  he  any  longer  recognize  or  judge 
God's  Word,  but  by  submission  with  a  penitent 
believing  heart  and  mind  accepting  what  it  might 
please  God  to  reveal,  and  obeying  God  on  trust? 
Man  had  ceased  to  be  the  judge,  and  coming  down 
from  the  judgment  seat  must  take  his  place  at  the  bar 
as  criminal,  and  must  receive  his  sentence,  and  the 
mercy  of  a  reprieve  on  God's  groimds,  not  his  own 
reasoning.  Conceive  his  saying,  I  am  the  ultimate 
judge — my  own  reason  and  conscience.  There  is  no 
authority  higher.  Conceive  of  his  asking  God,  What 
are  you  going  to  do  with  the  heathen?  Until  you 
let  me  understand  that,  I  can  not  receive  what  is 
written  as  being  divine.     And  if  I  am  to  leave  the 

*  "Memoirs  of  Norman  McLeod,"  p.  420. 


joo     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

heathen  in  Ood's  hands  without  a  revelation,  and 
they  are  safe  then  and  so,  why  am  I  not  as  safe, 
seeing  that  my  reason  can  not  accept  a  revelation 
that  teaches  an  endless  retribution  nor  one  that 
avers  that  man  as  an  immortal  being  can  ever  be 
lost  by  sin. 

A  Bible  for  learners,  reconstructed  on  such  prin- 
cij)les  even  out  of  the  Scriptures,  with  the  rea- 
son of  fallen  men  as  the  Supkeme  Judge,  could 
possess  nothing  in  it  of  authority,  or  sovereignty, 
or  certainty,  fi'om  God  the  Saviour,  for  man  the 
sinner.  The  right  philosophy  of  reason  itself  is 
that  which  investigates  its  condition  since  the  fall; 
and  that  can  be  known  only  by  God's  own  history 
of  the  fall  and  its  consequences,  in  the  perversion  of 
man's  whole  nature.  Hence  the  French  philosopher 
Condillac  ("Origin  of  Human  Knowledge,"  Part  I, 
Sec.  1),  made  the  declaration  as  a  principle  of  right 
metaphysical  logic,  that  "the  state  of  the  soid  in  the 
ignorance  and  concupiscence  produced  by  the  fall  is  the 
only  one  that  can  properly  he  the  object  of  philosophy,  be- 
cause it  is  the  only  one  made  known  to  us  by  experi- 
ence." The  Word  of  God  appeals  to  that  experiencb, 
shows  its  universality,  and  discloses  the  only  redemp- 
tion from  it,  by  the  new  creation  of  the  soul  in 
Christ.  Eousseau  himself  said,  "The  right  of  the 
gospel  is  always   unquestionable    and    reliable,   and 


God^s  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    joi 

consistent  with  itself.  Eeason  teaches  us  that  we 
ought  to  obey  its  precepts,  but  it  also  teaches  us 
that  it  is  above  reason." 

Has  the  Keason  of  man  been  affected  by  the  fall 
of  man,  and  does  it  partake  intellectually  of  his  de- 
graded condition  morally  ?  If  this  be  admitted,  then 
what  can  be  plainer  than  the  conclusion  that  the 
Scrij)tures  are  God's  infallible  Rule  for  our  Reason, 
but  our  Reason  can  not  be  the  infallible  judge  of 
God's  Scrij)tures,  God's  thoughts.  Hence  the  truth 
of  the  critical  maxim  of  Lord  Bacon,  appHed  to  the 
interpretation  of  Scripture,  accompanied  with  the  cor- 
responding views  of  the  profoundest  scholars  and 
holiest  men  of  the  seventeenth  century,  such  as 
Lightfoot,  Usher,  and  Howe. 

"We  are  delivered  up  to  the  Scriptures  whereto 
ye  were  delivered,"  says  Lightfoot  commenting  on 
Romans  vi.  17,  "as  they  are  to  be  our  masters,  and 
not  loe  theirs.  As  another  apostle's  expression  is 
(James  i.  23,  24,  and  iv.  11),  'We  are  to  be  doers 
of  the  Law  and  not  judges;  to  be  the  students  of  the 
Scriptures,  doers  of  the  Scriptures,  not  their  judges.' "  * 

*  See  Lightfoot's  sermons  on  the  "Eeasons  for  keeping  God's 
Law,"  and  on  the  "First  Eesurrection,"  and  on  the  "Difficul- 
ties of  Scripture,"  and  on  "The  Sabbath  hallowed."  Works, 
voL  vii.  London,  1822.     See  also  Lightfoot's  argument  on  the 


J02     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

The  prayer  of  Lord  Bacon,  for  guidance  tlirougli 
all  his  inquisitions  in  natural  science,  his  adventures, 
suppositions   and    experiments,    for   improvement    in 

eoTirce  of  Luke's  Gospel,  hy  direct  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
shown  in  Ms  use  of  tlie  Greek  word,  avaodsv,  from  above. 
"  Harmony  of  the  New  Testament,"  vol.  iii.  compared  with  the 
notes  upon  Luke,  i.  2,  3,  vol.  xii. :  having  had  perfect  understand- 
ing of  all  things,  not  from  men,  or  their  narratives,  or  tradition, 
hut  from  heaven  itself,  not  from  enquiry  of  others,  but  by  divine 
inspiration fr-om  the  beginning.  So  a.vooBEv,from  above,  signifies 
ovpavoOsv,  from  heaven,  in  John  iii.  3,  31,  and  xix.  11,  and 
James  i.  17;  iii.  17,  etc.  Compare  also  Lightfoot's  defence  of 
the  Doxology,  in  Matt.  vi.  13,  and  Lightfoot  on  Acts  i.  2, 
"whether  Luke  does  not,  by  the  word"  avooBEv,  declare  that 
he  understood  all  these  things  from  heaven,  and  '^from  above." 
"We  have  taken  it  as  meaning  beyond  all  controversy,  that  he 
was  divinely  inspired,  and  the  Spirit  from  above  governed  his 
pen,  while  he  was  writing  those  things."  Vol.  viii.  p.  354. 
Compare  the  declaration  of  Lord  Bacon  that  the  divine  Script- 
ures are  not  to  be  interpreted  as  other  volumes,  but  by  guidance 
of  the  Spirit  that  made  them  divine  and  infallible,  for  a  continu- 
ous, ever-adapted,  and  increasing  fulfilment.  "For  they  be- 
speak the  nature  of  their  Author,  one  day  as  a  thousand  years, 
and  a  thousand  years  as  one  day:  and  though  the  plenitude  and 
summit  of  their  accomplishment  may  be  for  the  most  part  des- 
tined to  some  particular  age,  or  even  given  moment  of  time, 
yet  have  they  in  the  meantime,  certain  grades  and  stages  of 
fulfilment,  through  dififerent  ages  of  the  world."  Advancement 
of  Science. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    joj 

natural  knowledge,  was  the  highest  exercise  of  a  truly 
scientific  reason.  It  was,  strictly  speaking,  a  more 
scientific  jorocess  of  inquiry,  than  the  silent  worship 
of  the  unknown  and  unknowable,'  suggested  by  Prof. 
Huxley  as  the  highest  exercise  of  a  religious  spirit. 
Lord  Bacon  prayed  "that  human  things  might  not 
prejudice  such  as  are  divine;  neither  that  from  the 
unlocking  of  the  gates  of  sense,  and  the  kindhng  of 
a  greater  natural  hght,  any  thing  may  arise  of  in- 
credulity or  intellectual^  night  towards  divine  mys- 
teries; but  rather  that,  by  our  minds  thoroughly 
purged  and  cleansed  from  fancy  and  vanity,  and  yet 
subject  and  jxrfectly  given  up  to  the  divine  oracles,  there 
may  he  given  unto  faith  the  things  that  arefaitKs." 

Coleridge,  in  the  account  of  his  own  education  and 
early  inwrought  principles  of  thought  ("Biographia 
Literaria ")  speaks  of  the  "  stirring  and  working  pre- 
sentiment that  aU  the  products  of  the  mere  reflec- 
tive FACULTY  partook  of  DEATH,  and  were  but  as  the 
ratthng  twigs  and  sprays  in  winter,  into  which  a  sap 
was  yet  to  be  propelled  from  some  root  to  which  he 
had  not  penetrated,  if  they  were  to  afford  his  soul 
either  food  or  shelter."  This  was  a  vivid  and  startling 
discovery.  How  true  to  Paul's  and  Luther's  experi- 
ence !  That  root  was  Christ.  And  the  Spirit  in  the 
heart  is  Christ's  interpreter,  both  of  the  Wor^  of 
God,  and  of  the  life  in  it,  and  of  the  Heaven  in  the 


jo^     God's  Timepiece  for  Jlfaiis  Etcriiity. 

likeness  of  Christ,  promised  by  it.     This  is  the  exper 
imental  demonstration  so  j)owerfiil  and  comforting  to 
faith  beforehand.     Dr.  South  jDreached  a  sermon  in 
Oxford  in  1699,  under  this  title,  drawn  from  Matt. 

"Vi.    21,  No   MAN   EVER  WENT    TO    HEAVEN,  WHOSE   HEAET   WAS 

NOT  THERE  BEFORE.  Add  to  this,  710  mau's  heart  ever 
thei'e,  but  only  by  the  new  birth  in  Christ,  and  we  have 
the  central  demonstration  of  Christianity. 

Experience  trusted  in,  without  faith  in  God,  with- 
out reliance  on  His  grace,  and  on  the  guidance  of  His 
Word,  makes  us  never  any  higher  or  better  than  men 
always  have  been  by  nature.  Science  by  itself  alone, 
with  all  its  culture,  at  its  utmost  capacity  and  reach, 
can  give  us  only  a  crystallization  of  selfishness.  Gen- 
ius may  shine  like  a  diamond,  but  it  is  only  carbon, 
and  when  all  things  subject  to  fire  are  burned  up,  it 
must  go  the  way  of  common  earth.  Now  if  any  man 
trust  in  scientific  experience  to  make  the  world  or 
himself  better,  or  if  he  boast  the  riches  of  such  ex- 
perience as  a  wealth  of  transfiguration  for  mankind, 
he  will  find  himself  and  his  generation  in  the  predica- 
ment of  the  miner  in  Cahfornia,  reported  to  have 
broken  open  one  of  the  geodes  m  the  mountain,  and 
drank  from  it  the  water  of  crystallization  to  quench  his 
thirst,  who  immediately  himself  became  a  solid  fossil. 
So  mankind,  though  scientifically  and  to  the  last  de- 
gree of  perfection,  crystallized,  will  be  nothing  better 


God's  Timepiece  fo}'  Maiis  Eternity.    J05 


without  faith,  than  walking  fossils.  Men  cast  anchor 
out  of  the  stern,  without  Paul's  spiritual  science,  and 
wish  in  vain  for  the  day,  not  knowing  what  to  do  with 
it  even  when  it  conies,  but  drifting  stern  foremost. 

Unmoored  from  Christ,  and  His  infaUible  interpre- 
tation, we  find  the  distinguishing  truths  of  the  re- 
demptive and  regenerating  theology,  which,  sitting 
at  his  feet,  we  have  gathered  from  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  gliding  insensibly  out  of  recognition,  be- 
coming more  and  more  indefinite  and  distant,  re- 
duced, both  in  themselves  and  the  original  books, 
sources,  and  j)ersons,  from  which  and  from  whom, 
according  to  the  discovered  divine  plan,  we  have  re- 
ceived them, — reduced  from  certainties  to  uncertain- 
ties, from  divine  doctrines  to  human  opinions,  from 
granite  to  gravel,  from  truth  with  distinct  angles,  to 
smooth  round  pebbles,  from  divine  inspiration  to  hu- 
man intuition,  and  from  one  only  true  rehgion  to 
many,  equally  acceptable  to  God,  if  the  worshipper  of 
them  is  only  sincere.  From  a  recognized,  revealed, 
divine  Sovereignty  of  moral  government  growing  out 
of  the  eternal  elements  of  God's  nature,  we  are 
brought  down  to  the  sovereignty  of  hiiman  judgment, 
the  verdict  of  a  jury  of  human  consciences  and  opin- 
ions as  to  what  is  right  and  wrong,  not  as  that  ver- 
dict might  have  been  rendered  by  perfect  beings, 
by  angels  or  other  creatures,  in  the  image  and  love 


^o6     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

of  God,  but,  as  rendered  by  the  moral  sentiments  of 
creatures  confessedly  in  rebellion  against  Grod,  and 
with  darkened  consciences. 

These  "  cataracts  of  truth  "  in  Christ  for  our  eternal 
life  "blow  their  trumpets"  fi-om  the  very  throne  of 
God.*  They  are  not  fog-bells,  nor  lighthouses  whose 
flame  may  be  hidden  or  extinguished  by  the  ocean  in 
a  tempest.  But  we  have  an  unction  from  the  Holy 
One,  and  know  aU  things;  because,  he  that  will  do 
His  will  shall  know  of  the  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of 
God.  There  is  our  absolute  test  of  certainty,  per- 
sonal, universal,  such  as  no  science  can  present.  And 
of  aU  sciences  rehgion  is  the  most  absolutely  and  pro- 
foundly experimental,  the  most  disciplinary;  being  a 
comprehensive  working  and  disciphne  of  the  whole 
of  man's  nature,  with  examination  and  self -verifica- 
tion of  all  the  facts.  It  is  the  true  Health-Lift  exer- 
cise, by  which  a  man  raises  himself  from  death,  and 
knows  that  he  is  raised  only  in,  and  by,  and  for 
Christ;  but  having  that  unction  from  the  Holy  One, 
knows  by  experience,  all  that  he  does  know,  and  not 
by  reliance  on  other  men's  experiments. 

*  Wordsworth's  "Ode  on  the  Intimations  of  Immortality  in 
early  Childhood."     The  Ode  itself  brings  to  mind  the  poet's  ex- 
quisite sonnet  on  King's  College  Chapel: — 
"That  branching  roof, 
Self-poised,  and  scooped  into  ten  thousand  cells, 
Where  light  and  shade  repose,  where  music  dwells. 
Lingering  and  wandering  on  as  loth  to  die; 
Like  thoughts  whose  very  sweetness  yieldeth  proof 
That  they  were  bom  for  immortaxits.  " 


Gocfs  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    joy 


XXXIX. 

ARGUMENTS  OF  ULLMAN,  THOLUCK,  LUTHER,  AND 
BENGEL,  ON  THE  USE  AND  PROVINCE  OF  REASON, 
AND  THE  NECESSITY  OF  A  VERBAL  INSPIRATION— 
IN  WHAT  SENSE  IS  THE  BIBLE  BREATHED  FORTH 
FROM  GOD? 

"Faith  in  Jesus,  and  in  His  instructions,"  says  Ull- 
man,  in  concluding  his  profound  treatise  on  the  Sin- 
less Chakacter  of  Jesus,  "  is  a  kind  of  faith  which  is 
not  blind  and  does  not  sacrifice  the  reason  of  man. 
In  no  way  can  that  which  we  believe  on  the  authority 
of  Jesus  contravene  the  laws  of  our  own  intellect. 
On  the  contrary,  we  feel  ourselves  bound  to  receive 
his  doctrines,  under  the  assurance  that  they  are  the 
outflowings  of  the  Divine  Reason,  from  which  have 
proceeded  not  only  these  truths,  but  also  the  nature, 
the  laws,  and  the  necessities  of  our  o-^ti  narrow,  but 
yet  divinely-related  intellect.  We  feel  assured  that 
there  is  a  pre-established  harmony  between  revelation 
and  the  human  soul;  and  we  are  convinced  that 
there  will  be  discovered,  at  the  last,  a  most  exact 
agreement  between  the  truths  revealed  by  the  Di- 
vine Reason,  and  the  laws  that  regulate  the  human." 

"  Human  reason,"  says  Prof.  Tholuck,  quoting  from 
Luther,    "flits   and   flutters   about   the   letter  of  the 


jo8     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

Divine  Word  until  it  has  got  it  to  rights  for  ihelf; 
that  is,  in  other  words,  until  it  has  regulated  the 
sundial  hy  the  clock  in  its  own  chamber.  But  if  it 
is  the  Spirit  of  God,  who  alone  teaches  to  under- 
stand the  Word  of  God,  then  mere  working  on  the 
letter  cannot  do  this;  on  the  contrary,  one  must 
protect  himself  from  the  haughty  illusions  of  hu- 
man reason,  by  learning  rightly  to  distinguish  be- 
tween the  human  and  divine." 

Now  how  to  do  this,  Tholuck  shows  in  his  remarks 
on  the  importance  of  regarding  the  Analogy  of  Faith, 
the  whole  Plan  of  the  Author  and  Finisher  of  Faith. 
"  As  what  a  human  author  means  in  a  single  passage 
of  his  book  is  perceptible  only  from  his  meaning  in 
the  whole  book,  and  as  the  importance  of  a  single 
member  of  the  human  body  can  be  known  only  so 
far  as  we  endeavor  earnestly  to  understand  it  fi'om 
the  structure  of  the  whole  frame;  so  also  what  the 
Holy  Scrij^ture  means  in  any  one  passage  only  then 
is  seen,  when  the  reader  compares  the  individual  part 
with  the  whole,  and  so  interprets.  Luther  used  to 
say  of  his  own  translation,  the  good  understanding 
was  more  to  him  than  the  disjDutatious  letter." 
These  remarks  of  Tholuck  are  to  be  found  in  his 
"Hours  of  Christian  Devotion,"  on  II  Tim.  iii.   16. 

From  a  child,  says  Paul  to  Timothy,  thou  hast 
known  the  holy  Scriptures;  all  Scripture   given  by 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity,    jog 

inspii'ation  of  God,  and  profitable,  that  the  man  of 
God  may  be  perfect  He  could  not  be  perfect  for 
the  ministry  of  God's  "Word  by  any  Scripture  not 
divinely  inspired  and  infallible.  And  of  such  Scrip- 
ture he  could  learn  the  meaning  and  application 
only  by  the  mind  of  Christ,  through  the  Holy  Spirit, 
showing  it  to  the  soul,  that  the  things  thus  learned, 
freely  given  of  God,  might  be  proclaimed  not  in 
the  words  that  man's  wisdom  teacheth,  but  which 
the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth,  "Not  walking  in  crafti- 
ness, nor  handling  the  Word  of  God  deceitfully, 
but  by  manifestation  of  the  truth  commending  our- 
selves to  every  man's  coNscrENCE  in  the  sight  of  God." 
It  is  said  that  the  ordinary  barometers  in  the 
market  are  not  to  be  rehed  upon  by  farmers,  for 
several  reasons,  but  esjDeciaUy  because  they  so  easily 
get  out  of  order  to  a  certain  degree  imperceptible; 
that  is  by  admission  of  the  air  to  such  an  extent,  that 
the  sensitiveness  and  dehcacy  of  the  instrument  for 
detecting  changes  of  temperature  are  lost.  Now  this 
is  just  the  condition  of  the  common  marketable  con- 
science, unless  it  be  kept  sealed  up  for  God,  hermet- 
ically sealed,  as  it  were,  under  his  Word  and  Spii'it. 
If  there  is  any  leakage,  any  compromise,  if  the  air 
of  the  world  is  admitted,  the  atmosphere  of  expedi- 
ency, self-interest,  reputation,  convenience,  wealth- 
worshij),  public  sentiment,  popular  opinion,  custom, 


jio     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

human  law,  fo  axA  upon  the  spiritual  barometer,  instead 
of  being  tested  by  it,  then  it  plays  false,  it  is  no  more 
to  be  relied  upon. 

Conscience  sealed  up  for  God,  under  His  "Word  and 
Spirit,  and  only  thus,  can  be  a  true  judge.  The  world 
and  its  maxims  must  not  be  admitted  to  work  upon 
the  conscience,  or  to  get  within  it,  for  it  is  only  a  con- 
science TOWAKDS  God  that  can  be  trustworthy,  by  his 
own  Spirit,  not  the  spirit  of  the  world,  nor  of  the 
natural  man,  but  by  the  mind  of  Christ  judging  all 
things  for  us,  and  we  receiving  aU  judgment,  all  opin- 
ion, from  the  word,  by  the  Sj^irit. 

In  the  preface  to  his  exposition  of  the  Apocalypse 
in  1740,  the  illustrious  Bengel  says,  "  If  somewhat  of 
the  truth  has  fallen  to  my  lot,  I  found  it  in  the  com- 
mon way  or  highroad  to  heaven,  by  searching  the 
Word  of  God  with  simplicity."  And  he  adds,  "  God 
hath  taught  m.e,from  my  youth  upward,  to  have  a  view 
to  him  only;  and  in  the  meantime,  I  have  undergone 
so  many  and  so  various  judgments  of  men,  that  as 
to  matters  of  conscience  'tis  all  one  to  me,  whether 
God  and  man,  or  God  alone,  approve  of  my  doings." 

Bengel  describes  the  grounds  of  his  conviction  of 
the  verbal  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  in  a  sugges- 
tive note  on  I  Peter  i.  10-12,  "  Of  which  salvation  the 
prophets  have  inquired  and  searched  diligently,"  etc. 

Bengel  says,   "We  know  that  the  Old  Testament 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    jii 


Fathers  could  not  and  did  not  exercise  their  faith 
and  expectation  of  the  Messiah  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  exckide  all  conjectures  about  the  time  when 
He  should  come.  We  know  this  from  the  text  in 
I  Peter  i.  11."  And  here  he  points  out  the  inference 
deducible  from  Peter's  words,  relating  to  a  question 
of  great  importance.  "  To  the  Prophets,  who  prophe- 
sied of  the  grace  of  God  towards  the  Christians,  it  was 
revealed  that  these  blessings  did  not  belong  to  their 
own  times,  but  to  a  then  future  time.  But  what  the 
time  was,  which  was  signified  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
in  them  testifying  beforehand  of  the  sufferings  of 
Christ  and  the  glory  that  should  foUow,  was  not 
revealed  to  them,  else  they  needed  not  to  have 
searched  for  it." 

Now,  adds  Bengel,  "where  could  they  search  but 
in  the  very  ivords  of  the  prophecies  dehvered  by  them- 
selves from  the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  them  testifying  con- 
cerning the  sufferings  of  Chi-ist  and  the  after  glory  ? 
But  if  these  words  were  of  their  own  choosing,  to  express 
the  ideas  or  notions  they  were  msj)ired  with, — it  was 
in  vain  to  search  for  any  notions  imphed  in  or  deduci- 
ble from  them,  other  than  ivhat  they  themselves  intended 
to  convey  by  them,  and  which  consequently  xoere  revealed, 
because  well  known  to  them.  They  knew  therefore  that 
the  words  they  spoke  or  wrote,  had  a  more  extensive. 
Tneaning  than  they  themselves  yet  apprehended,  and  im- 


JI2     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

plied  things  yet  unknown  to  them,  and  Hkely  to  be 
found  out  by  searching.  Therefore,  the  words  were 
not  theirs,  but  those  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  them  tes- 
tifying, concerning  the  sufferings  of  Christ  and  what 
was  to  come  afterwards.     That  is  to  say.  The  very 

WOEDS,  IN  WHICH  THE  INSPIRED  WRITERS  SPOKE  OR  WROTE 
THEIR   REVELATIONS,    WERE   DIVINELY    INSPIRED." 

"Receive  then,"  says  Bengel,  "the  truth  as  the 
Truth,  and  conjectures  as  conjectures." 

The  Spirit  of  Christ  in  the  Prophets  testified  before- 
hand, before  Christ's  coming.  But  where  are  those  scrip- 
tures to  be  found,  thus  minutely  testifying  ?  It  con- 
stitutes a  demonstration  of  the  antique  integrity  and 
truth  of  the  whole  book  of  Isaiah  and  of  the  Hebrew 
Canon,  such  as  cannot  be  confuted.  The  whole  book, 
known  and  quoted  so  abundantly  by  our  Lord  and 
His  apostles  was  identical  with  that  which  we  know 
under  the  same  name. 

See  the  argument  of  Alexander  on  Isaiah  against 
the  vaunted  treatment  and  arrangment  of  its  con- 
tents by  the  German  critics,  Ewald  and  others,  as 
"the  latest  achievement  of  the  higher  criticism."  "We 
need  look  for  no  invention  beyond  this,"  says  Dr. 
Alexander,  "  unless  it  be  that  of  reading  the  book  back- 
wards, or  shuffling  the  chapters  like  a  pack  of  cards." 

Corresponding  with  these  views  are  those  so  power- 
fully set  forth  by  Prof.  Eleazar  T.  Fitch,  D.D.,  of 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    j/j 

New  Haven,  in  the  "Bibliotheca  Sacra,"  1855,  on 
"  The  True  Doctrine  of  Divine  Inspiration."  The 
historical  as  vs^ell  as  critical  argument  is  presented 
with  cogent  clearness  and  eloquence. 

"If  therefore,"  says  he,  "you  inquire  in  what  sense 
the  Bible  is  breathed  forth  from  God,  the  tx"ue  an- 
swer is,  the  whole  Book  was  prepared,  by  His  direc- 
tion, for  the  redemption  through  Christ,  planned  in 
His  eternal  wisdom;  by  men  to  whom  He  gave  direct 
revelations  and  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  necessary 
to  guide  them  in  their  writings;  consequently  the 
whole  Book  has  endorsed  upon  it  His  name  and  au- 
thority. While  all  other  books  are  hooks  of  men,  this 
is  the  Book  of  God.  "While  others  are  liaUe  to  err  re- 
sjDecting  truth  or  duty,  this  is  infallible.  "While  others 
are  subject  to  our  conscientious  judgments,  even  in  the 
decisions  they  pronounce,  this  book,  as  the  eternal  rule 
of  judgment,  binds  the  conscience;  and  our  only  inquiry 
is,  "What  are  its  decisions  ? "  "  The  book  contains,  in 
every  title,  p)'ecisely  that,  which,  in  God's  eternal  plan  He 
foreordained  should  compose  the  book;  from  tvhich  none 
can  take  anything,  or  to  which  add  anything,  without  in- 
vading Sis  right  and  prerogative  to  be  heard  just  as  he 
speaks  in  His  Word." 


J//     Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 


XL. 

DEMONSTRATION  FROM  THE  CLOSE  OF  LUKE'S  GOS- 
PEL THE  HIGHEST  CONSISTENT  WITH  FAITH  — THE 
CERTAINTY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  CANON— 
PHILO  AND  JOSEPHUS  AS  WITNESSES  —  CHRIST'S 
VERIFICATION  BOTH  OF  THE  BOOKS,  AND  THEIR 
INFALLIBLE  INSPIRATION  —  IN  THE  TEMPTATION, 
FIVE  POINTS  SETTLED  IN  REGARD  TO  DIVINE  REV- 
ELATION. 

The  three  last  chapters  of  the  Gospel  according  to 
Liike  (the  twenty-fourth  being  the  consummation  of 
aU  that  precedes)  apjoear  as  a  rainbow  bridge  be- 
tween two  Eternities  of  Divine  Truth,  with  Christ  en- 
throned in  the  centre  as  the  Keystone  and  Supporter, 
the  Author,  Builder,  Interpreter  of  all.  All  mantind 
who  would  go  safely  into  the  invisible  world  must 
pass  by  faith  in  Him.  Nor  is  there  any  chapter  of 
divine  revelation  from  Genesis  to  the  Apocalypse 
more  exquisitely  pathetic,  comforting  and  demonstra- 
tive than  this,  given  by  His  Spirit,  containing  the 
record  of  the  walk  to  Emmaus.  It  is  a  combination 
of  aU  the  sublimest  truths  both  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  from  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  to  the 
second  and  seventy-second  Psalms,  and  from  the  fifty- 
third  of  Isaiah  to  the  first  of  John,  and  the  last  of 


God's  Timepiece  for  Alans  Eternity,    j/j 

the   Apocalypse.     It    is    quite    inexplicable   how   any 
reader  of  the  whole  book  can  doubt  its  divineness. 

It  may  be  challenged  as  an  example  of  the  wisdom 
and  benevolence  of  Grod  providing  for  His  intelligent 
creatures  absolute  demonstration,  as  far  as  the  con- 
stitution of  the  human  mind  would  permit,  and  still 
leave  room  for  a  child's  faith  in  the  Heavenly  Father's 
love,  without  which  faith  there  could  be  no  possibihty 
of  any  reasoning  creature  being  a  child  of  G-od,  or  fit 
for  the  worship  of  God  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
It  may  be  said  of  the  demonstration  of  Christianity 
contained  in  these  gospels,  that  the  divine  nature  of 
the  Saviour  would  not  permit  it  to  be  less,  while  the 
constitution  of  the  human  mind  for  behef  in  the  in- 
visible God  and  Father  would  not  permit  it  to  be 
more.* 

*  Compare  Sir  Kobert  Boyle's  "Considerations  on  the  Style 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures";  also  on  the  " Keconcilableness  of  Rea- 
son and  Eeligion";  also  John  Foster's  Essays,  Letter  VI.,  on  "A 
Man's  writing  Memoirs  of  himself,"  and  Letter  IIL,  on  "De- 
cision of  Character."  Also  his  work  on  the  "Evils  of  Popular 
Ignorance."  "The  withdrawment  of  the  grand  truth  in  ques- 
tion from  a  man's  faith,  that  is,  eternity,  an  invisible  world,  and 
a  judgment  to  come,  the  whole  of  revealed  truth,  would  nec- 
essarily break  up  the  moral  government  over  his  conscience." 
Foster's  argument  demolishes  the  fabric  of  Secularism.  It  is 
a  demonstration  of  the  necessity  of  an  education  in  the  religion 
of  faith  in  Christ,  as  the  only  protection  of  the  State  fi-om  moral 
disintegration. 


ji6     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

Now  if  any 'one  yet  ask,  "How  can  I  be  sure? 
There  are  those  that  say,  This  is  no  history,  but 
only  one-sided  opinion;  a  mere  sect  of  dreamers, 
imposing  false  statements  on  the  world.  There  is 
no  verification  of  all  this,  outside  the  little  pale  of 
the  gospels.  What  proof  is  there  that  the  holy  canon 
of  the  Jews  from  Moses  down  to  Christ  was  the  very 
canon  that  Christ  gave  to  His  discij)le3  and  that  we 
receive  iroui  Him  ? "  The  answer  presents  a  fair 
and  satisfactory  demonstration  by  correlations  and 
correspondence  of  admitted  histor}'',  and  witnesses 
confessed  by  the  whole  historic  world,  and  water- 
marks extending  over  ages,  and  vouchers  inextrica- 
bly interwoven  and  attached.  We  have  the  Greek 
translation  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  called  the  Sep- 
tuagint,  just  after  the  conquests  of  Alexander  the 
Great,  demonstrating  what  were  and  had  been  the 
holy  books  of  the  whole  Jewish  people,  in  succes- 
sive ages  from  Moses  to  Malachi.  At  the  time  when 
Christ  came  we  have  two  great  admitted  historic  phi- 
losophers and  interiDreters  of  Hebrew  sacred  litera- 
ture, Philo  and  Josephus;  and  a  vast  population,  of 
whose  knowledges  and  behefs  they  are  the  admitted 
unquestionable,  credible  exponents. 

The  references  to  these  witnesses,  if  not  their  orig- 
inal works,  are  at  command  of  every  reader  of  the 
English  tongue;  so  that  no  student  need   complain 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    jij 


of  any  want  of  the  means  of  verification.  A  brief 
but  thorough  and  satisfactory  confirmation  of  the 
canon  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  .as  Christ 
quoted  them  is  found  in  Eichhorn's  "  Historic  Inves- 
tigation of  the  Canon  of  the  Old  Testament,"  trans- 
lated and  published  in  New  York  as  early  as  1829, 
by  Rev.  Dr.  Schroeder.  The  jresult  is  this,  in  Eich- 
horn's language,  that  "  History  attests  that  after  the 
Babylonian  Captivity,  and  indeed  soon  after  the  new 
establishment  of  the  Hebrew  State  in  Palestine,  the 

CANON   WAS   FULLY   SETTLED,    AND   AT   THAT   TIME    COMPRISED 
ALL    THOSE   BOOKS   WHICH   WE   NOW   FIND    IN   IT." 

Whether  the  opinions  of  such  men  as  Philo  and 
Josephus  or  their  interpretations  of  what  is  contained 
in  the  books  be  true  or  false;  pure,  or  mingled  with 
conceits,  traditions,  fables,  philosophies  outside,  is  of 
no  moment  whatever  as  to  the  question  what  were 
the  veritable  historical  and  prophetic  books  which 
they  and  the  Jewish  State,  Nation,  people,  long  be- 
fore Christ  came,  received  and  transmitted  as  the 
Word  of  God,  an  inspired,  sacred,  infaUible  litera- 
ture. They  and  their  followers  and  readers  consti- 
tute a  body  of  witnesses,  a  collection  of  proofs,  as 
credible  in  every  respect  as  Julius  Csesar,  Cicero, 
Tacitus,  and  their  believers  and  the  readers  of  their 
books;  a  testimony  that  never  has  been  rejected  by 
the  toughest   of  sceptics,  but  received  from  age   to 


■^i8     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 


age  as  liistorical,  for   two  thousand  years.     That  is 
one  side  of  the  equation  of  evidence,  unquestioned. 

Now  on  the  other,  we  have  the  hfe  and  words  of 
Christ  recorded  in  the  gospels,  and  the  subsequent 
teaching  of  His  apostles,  and  the  growth  and  his- 
tory of  Christianity,  and  its  work  upon  the  world  for 
two  thousand  years,  referred  to  and  springing  from 
the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  the  old  Hebrew  Bible. 
And  all  the  words  of  Christ  refer  back  to  those  Scrip- 
tures as  his  divine  authority,  and  for  Life  Eternal, 
preaching  the  love  of  God,  and  man's  redemption, 
ever  from  those  Scriphires  as  God's  wfaJlible  Word. 
Can  we  conceive  of  Christ  Himself  as  ever  entertain- 
ing a  doubt  as  to  their  authenticity,  genuineness,  infall- 
ibility ?  Can  we  imagine  the  possibility  of  Christ's  ap- 
peahng  to  God's  Word,  and  yet  admitting  that  in  its 
reasoning,  or  its  words,  it  might  be  broken,  might 
not  be  God's  Word?  Could  it  be  inspu-ed  by  the 
Spu-it  of  God,  and  yet  the  words  not  so  inspired,  as  to 
convey  infallibly  the  thoughts  of  God,  the  intended 
meaning  of  that  inspiration? 

There  is  no  such  intimation;  but,  applying  them  to 
Himself,   as  to  aU  mankind,  He  always  appealed  to 
them  as  binding  on  every  conscience,  settled  forever 
in   heaven,   and   beyond   question.     There   is   no   in 
stance  of  His  ever  arguing  that  point  of  infallibility, 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    jig 

or  meeting  any  man  on  the  ground  that  it  could  be 
debatable.  An  infallible  inspiration,  and  God's  Vol- 
ume in  whicli  it  was  contained  in  words,  were '  the 
ruling  divine  prepossession  of  His  soul. 

There  is  thus  settled,  in  the  very  first  sentence  in 
the  ministry  of  Christ  on  earth,  first,  the  fact  that 
there  is  such  a  revelation;  second,  that  Satan  knew 
it,  and  acknowledged  it,  as  well  as  the  Son  of  God; 
third,  that  it  was  not  of  limited  or  local  application 
or  authority,  as  for  the  Jews  only,  but  equally  and 
completely  for  all  mankind;  fourth,  that  it  was  as 
binding  on  the  Son  of  God,  at  whatever  cost  to  Him- 
self in  the  way  of  obedience,  as  on  any  other  man, 
and  that  the  very  possibility  of  blessedness,  and  in- 
deed of  any  thing  except  enmity  against  God,  lay  in 
such  trust,  obedience,  and  love;  and  fifth,  that  this 
revelation  was  and  is  so  known,  so  determinate,  so 
separate  from  and  superior  to  all  human  writings, 
that  the  words  It  is  written,  when  issued  as  the 
final  obUgation  for  man's  conduct  and  opinions,  are 
instantly  understood  as  referring  to  that  revealed 
volume  and  settling  the  matter. 

These  five  things  do  certainly  comprehend,  in  the 
volume  of  which  they  can  be  affirmed,  a  plenary  in- 
spiration, sufficient  in  fulness  and  infallibihty  for  all 
the  conceivable  purposes  for  which  a  revelation  from 
God   is  necessary  for   mankind.     Absolute   truth  in 


J20     God's  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity. 

such  a  revelation  follows  as  its  inevitable  character- 
istic; and  consequently  a  verbal  inspiration  just  so  far 
as  that  is  essential  to  the  plenary  conveyance  of  ab- 
solute truth.  Here  then  we  have  the  meaning  and 
fulfilment  of  that  declaration  in  the  Psalms  (Ps. 
cxxxviii.  2),  "  Thou  hast  magnified  Thy  Word  above 
aU  Thy  name." 

It  stands  in  the  place  of  God,  and  Christ  invokes 
its  verdict  and  authority  as  if  it  were  God.  There  is 
not  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  about  it.  There  is  no 
more  uncertainty  in  regard  to  it  than  there  is  in  re- 
gard to  God's  own  existence  and  attributes.  The 
first  manifestation  of  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ, 
after  His  own  baptism  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  is  this 
unconditional  exaltation  of  the  written  Word  of  God 
as  the  supreme  arbiter  of  human  duty,  and  this  in- 
stant and  perfect  submission  of  aU  the  interests  and 
emergencies  of  life  and  death  to  its  authority.  This 
is  the  foundation  and  material  of  the  ministry  of 
Jesus  Christ  Himself,  It  is  written. 

There  is  no  abstraction,  no  uncertainty  as  to  the 
enshrinement  of  this  light,  any  more  than  there  wag 
to  the  old  pilgrims  and  astronomers  under  God's 
heavens,  when  He  took  them  forth  at  midnight,  and 
appealed  to  the  stars  as  His  witnesses,  His  vouchers. 
Was  there  any  uncertainty  about  Orion  or  Pleiades, 
or  any   of   those   glorious    constellations   beheld   by 


God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity.    J2T 

Abraham  or  Job,  or  any  question  as  to  God  being 
the  Creator  of  them  ?  Or  do  we  have  way  doubt  that 
we  see  the  same  stars  that  they  saw,  and  know  them 
to  be  the  same  ?  And  now  we  know  through  Christ 
just  as  unerringly  the  books  of  God's  Word,  as  we 
do  the  planets  of  which  His  Word  speaks,  and  which 
we  behold  now  in  the  heavens.  We  know  that  they 
are  the  very  same  books  that  Jesus  read,  and  obeyed, 
and  appealed  to,  and  walked  and  taught  in  their 
light.  We  know  moreover  as  infaUibly  that  none 
but  God  could  make  them,  as  we  do  that  none  but 
He  could  make  the  starry  heavens.  What  we  caU 
the  internal  evidence  of  these  Scrijotures  which  Christ 
knew,  and  to  which  Christ  refers  us,  is  as  great,  com- 
manding, and  perfect,  as  the  evidence  of  design,  and 
of  the  being  and  j)rovidence  of  the  Creator  in  these 
heavens,  under  which  Christ  was  born  and  Hved,  and 
which  He  studied  and  loved  as  the  works  of  His 
Father.  None  but  God  could  have  vnritten  one  of 
the  least  of  those  letters  of  light,  those  all  rtding 
planetary  sentences ;  and  equally,  none  but  God 
could  have  written  the  book  of  Genesis,  or  Exodus,  or 
Leviticus,  or  Numbers,  or  Deuteronomy,  or  bound 
them  together  in  their  divine  unity;  —  or  Miriam's 
song,  or  the  prayer  of  Moses  in  the  90th  Psalm,  or 
Christ's  reign  and  worship  in  the  2d  Psalm,  or  the 
19th,   or  the  40th,  or  the  72d,  or  the  103d,  or  the 


■^22     God's  Tmiepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity. 

fifty-thii'd  chapter  of  Isaiah,  or  the  Gospel  of  John, 
or  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 

Such  is  the  immeasurable  reach  and  power  of  this 
argument.  The  Lord  Jesus  Chi-ist  is  confessedly  the 
central  personage  and  reahty  of  divine  revelation,  the 
Author  and  Finisher  of  faith.  To  Him  all  truth  con- 
verges, and  around  Him,  as  the  central  Sun,  all  hght, 
all  orbs  of  light,  gravitate,  and  on  Him  they  depend. 
To  Him  all  the  testimonies  of  God  travel,  and  fi'om 
Him  aU  their  rays  are  reflected  back,  as  the  renewed 
and  repromulgated  testimony  of  God;  God  being  His 
own  interpreter  in  Christ,  and  not  permitting  divine 
revelation  to  depend  on  any  other  than  a  divine  wit- 
ness. From  the  cross,  upHfted  as  the  Lamb  of  God, 
the  Redeemer,  in  death  bestowing  pardon,  and  salva- 
tion. He  flings  the  Eternal  Light  backward  and  for- 
ward. And  then,  in  the  morning  and  evening  of  the 
ResiuTection  He  appears  and  travels  with  His  disci- 
ples through  the  whole  Old  Testament;  bidding  them 
search  it  as  for  their  life,  because  it  testifies  of  Him 
in  His  suiferings,  death  and  glory;  assuring  them  that 
in  it,  it  is  not  man,  but  God  that  testifies,  and  ex- 
pounding unto  them  in  aU  the  Scriptures  the  things 
concerning  HimseK, 

And  thus,  fi'om  the  same  central  position,  as  the 
Way,  the  Truth,  the  Life,  He  creates  and  estabhshes 
the  Tnethod,  the  certainty,  the  matter  and  argwnient  of  the 


Gods  Tiptepiecc for  Mans  Eternity.    J2j 

New  Testament  Scriptures,  Himself  their  life,  theii*  con 
vincing,  sanctifying,  new-creating  radiance  and  power, 
in  the  record  of  His  own  life,  sufferings,  miracles, 
death,  resurrection,  ascension;  in  the  Gospels,  Acts, 
Epistles;  HimseK,  His  blood,  His  Spirit,  His  love,  the 
fountain  of  all  their  inspiration,  the  vital  element  of 
their  hfe-giving  Hght.  From  Genesis  to  the  Apoca- 
lypse He  shines,  the  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  begin- 
ning and  the  end,  the  first  and  the  last,  the  end  of 
the  law  for  righteousness,  the  manifestation  of  the 
divine  attributes  and  glory,  the  object,  consumma- 
tion and  proof  of  aU  divine  revelation.  From  Eter- 
nity to  Eternity  it  is  the  new  song,  ever  old  and  ever 
new,  of  Moses  and  the  Lamb.  Great  and  marvellous 
are  Thy  works.  Lord  God  Almighty !  just  and  true 
Thy  ways,  Thou  King  of  saints  !  Blessing  and  honor 
and  glory  and  power,  be  unto  Him  that  sitteth  upon 
the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb,  fobeveb  and  evek. 


^2^     Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 


XLI. 

ARGUMENT  FROM  THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  PARTICLES- 
JUSTIFICATION  BY  GOD'S  WORDS— PAUL'S  ARGU- 
MENT  OF   THE   RESURRECTION. 

The  discussions  between  profoundly  learned  men 
concerning  the  place  and  meaning  of  particles  and 
articles  in  a  dead  language  are  full  of  instruction. 
If  the  view  of  a  strictly  verbal  inspiration  has  been 
carried  to  an  extreme,  introducing  difficulties  that 
reaUy  do  not^  exist,  the  denial  of  it,  and  the  supposi- 
tion that  an  infallible  revelation  could  be  conveyed 
without  words,  by  the  inbreathed  thought  merely, 
without  the  forms  of  speech  necessary  for  its  com- 
plete and  accurate  presentation,  leaves  the  accuracy 
of  the  message  open  to  a  denial  that  may  be  fatal  to 
its  power,  at  the  mercy  of  the  merely  human  and  un- 
inspired utterance.  There  must  have  been,  we  are 
ready  to  say,  a  choice  of  words  by  the  Divine  Spirit, 
for  the  divinely  inspired  writer,  a  guardianship  secur- 
ing the  utterance  of  the  truth  that  God  chooses  to 
convey;  an  inspiration  sufficiently  plenary  and  verbal 
to  make  the  message  a  thing  to  be  received  as  the 
Thessalonian  beHevers  were  praised  for  receiving  it, 
not  as  the  word  of  men,  but  as  it  is  in  truth  the  Word 
of  God,  which  effectually  worketh,  not  in  word  only, 


God's  Tii7zepiece for  Mans  Eternity.    J2^ 

but  in  power  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  in  much 
assurance. — I  Thess.  i.  5,  and  ii.  13.  The  original 
utterance  may  be  misinterpreted,  may  have  suffered 
alteration  in  being  transmitted,  or  translated,  but  as 
it  came  from  God,  it  must  have  been  infallible.  And 
God  in  Christ,  to  reconcile  the  world  unto  Himself, 
and  draw  men  by  divine  truth,  must  have  been  infal- 
lible in  His  own  quotations  from  His  own  Scriptiires. 
And  so  with  Christ's  inspired  disciples.  It  was  at 
His  own  pleasure  to  vary  the  language  in  quoting 
from  Himself,  but  always  without  error,  without  con- 
tradiction; always  in  accordance  with  the  fulness  and 
accuracy  of  His  own  known  meaning. 

We  have  said,  as  it  came  from  Ood.  In  this  con- 
viction, which  was  a  just  postulate,  by  God's  own 
announcements,  the  Jews  of  old,  neglecting  the  Spirit, 
which  giveth  hfe,  and  cleaving  to  the  letter,  which 
conveyeth  it,  went  to  such  an  extreme  of  superstition 
as  worshippers  of  the  letter,  without  the  Spirit,  that 
it  was  no  longer  the  Divine  Word,  hving  in  them, 
but,  as  in  the  worship  of  the  brazen  serpent,  instead 
of  the  Saviour  typified,  they  became  idolaters.  But 
they  might  well  be  worshippers  even  unto  martyr- 
dom, not  without  reason,  not  without  a  divine  provi- 
dence and  intuition  directing  them,  in  belief  and  de- 
fence of  the  Word,  as  letter  and  Spirit  in  one,  as  in 
Is.  hx.  21.     So  alone  were  they  justified  in  their  jeal- 


^26     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternily. 

ousy  and  scrutiny  and  j)ainful  accuracy  as  keepers 
of  the  oracles  of  God,  because  the  words  of  their 
Scriptures  in  those  oracles,  were  God's  words.  So 
only  are  we  justified  in  the  stress  we  are  accustomed 
to  lay  upon  the  words  of  every  passage  which  we 
contend  for  as  inspired.  The  exact  meaning  of  it 
could  only  be  conveyed  to  us  in  exact  words,  per- 
fectly truthful,  without  error;  that  is,  such  words  in 
our  own  human  language,  as  were  sufficient  for  God's 
purposes  of  infalHble  saving  truth,  in  the  conveyance 
of  His  own  thoughts. 

Do  we  think  in  language,  or  does  the  language  also, 
by  divine  commission,  think  m  and  for  us  ?  There  is 
certainly  a  process  in  the  mind,  for  and  by  which  the 
language  is  minted,  as  there  is  melted  gold  before  its 
pieces  are  coined  and  weighed  and  stamped.  For  ex- 
act thought,  exact  words;  for  loose  thought,  careless 
words  may  answer;  but  for  divine  thought,  and  eter- 
nal destinies  and  responsibilities,  and  with  such  a 
canon  of  eternal  judgment  as  this,  "By  thy  words 
thou  shalt  be  justified,  and  by  thy  words  condemned," 
God's  words  also  musi  be  His,  justification,  as  hav- 
ing been  inspii'ed  by  His  Spirit,  for  our  infallible 
guidance. 

Now  the  argument  fi'om  all  these  trains  for  the 
necessity  of  a  divine  infallible  inspiration  is  as  com- 
plete and   perfect  as  that  for  the  existence  of  God 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    ^2'j 

from  tlie  proofs  of  benevolent  design  in  nature.  la 
God  our  Father  ?  Would  He  then  leave  us  without 
instruction?  Would  He  leave  us  in  the  power  of 
falsehood  ? 

The  answer  is  to  be  found  in  the  examination  of 
what  He  )xa8  left  us,  which,  if  it  be  not  from  God, 
there  is  no  proof  of  a  good  God  at  aU  upon  the 
earth.  AU  such  proof  concentrates  in  Christ,  the 
Author  and  Finisher  of  Faith;  Christ,  without  whose 
coming  and  manifestation  as  the  Light  and  Life  of 
men  there  could  be  no  such  thing  as  trust  in  God, 
the  affectionate  obedient  trust  of  the  child  in  the 
Father,  but  only  the  relationship  of  distrust,  re- 
morse for  the  past  and  dread  of  that  which  is  to 
come.  But  Christ  living,  dying,  rising,  hath  brought 
life  and  immortality  to  light;  life  in  the  eternal  pres- 
ence and  likeness  of  God;  life  in  participation  of 
the  divine  nature,  through  God's  own  promise  of 
a  new  creating  spirit  in  the  soul  of  each  beUeving 
man,  according  to  God's  Word. 

This  is  Paul's  own  argument  in  regard  to  the  res- 
urrection. He  proves  that  Christ  rose  the  third  day, 
according  to  the  Scriptures;  but  if  Christ  be  not  risen, 
the  Scriptures  are  false,  and  so  our  faith  in  God  is 
vain,  impossible.  But,  the  Scriptiu^es  being  inspired 
of  God,  Christ  is  risen,  that  inspiration  being  infal- 
lible.    God's   infallibility,   absolute   in   His  Word,  is 


^28     God's  Timepiece fo)''  Mans  Eternity. 

the  foundation  of  all  divine  truth.  Higher  than  this 
inspiration  need  not,  can  not,  go;  lower  than  this,  it 
can  not  be  fi"oni  God,  can  not  be  God's  testimony, 
but  is  worthless.  This  may  be  called  reasoning  in 
a  circle;  but  it  is  God's  circle,  reasoning  from  Him- 
self to  Himself;  beyond  which  there  is  no  stand- 
point for  intelligence,  either  of  angels  or  of  men. 

It  must  come  to  this,  an  infallible  inspiration,  or 
none  at  all.  Revelation  is  worthless,  if  not  written; 
if  written,  dependent  on  the  words;  impossible  to 
be  written,  except  by  inspiration  from  the  Revealer, 
guiding  the  writer.  In  this  case,  the  words  must 
obey  and  follow  the  thoughts,  not  the  thoughts  the 
words.  The  thoughts  inspired  of  God  are  creators 
of  the  words,  in  order  that  the  words  may  be  cre- 
ators of  the  thoughts  that  God  intended  to  convey, 
in  other  minds,  the  truths  necessary  for  the  object 
of  revelation.  Inspired  truths,  involving  eternal  con- 
sequences, can  not  be  communicated  infallibly,  with- 
out inspired  words.  But  if  no  eternal  consequences, 
then  not  necessary  to  be  revealed,  and  no  divine 
inspiration  requisite. 

But  Christ's  appeal  to  all  mantind,  and  in  behalf 
of  all  mankind,  because  of  immortality,  and  its  eter- 
nal consequences  corresj)ondent  with  character  be- 
fore God,  was,  beyond  all  denial,  to  a  known  un- 
questionable  record    in    sentences    and   words    from 


God's  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity.    J2g 

God,  and  for  man's  eternal  good.  A  definite,  divine 
revelation  in  writing,  for  the  just  guidance  of  the 
human  conscience;  a  spiritual  revelation  connecting 
every  soul  with  God  the  Creator  and  Judge;  a  Light 
of  Life,  over  against  tradition,  naturalism,  evolution, 
the  imagination,  thoughts,  philosophy,  and  written 
iuteUigence  and  science  of  man.  It  is  God's  written 
word,  authoritative,  decisive,  supreme,  the  last  ab- 
solute tribunal.  It  may  be  traced  back  by  human 
investigation,  till  it  is  lost  from  sight  in  the  unsearch- 
able source  of  all  things,  the  Creative  Fountain  of 
all  knowledge  and  force  in  the  Old  Testament;  and 
then  in  the  New,  the  boundless  mystery  of  godliness 
in  the  Word  made  flesh;  the  fi.rst  verse  of  John's 
Gospel  answering  to  the  first  verse  of  Genesis,  "In 
the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  AVord  was 
with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God."  On  earth  incar- 
nate, and  in  heaven  enthroned,  God  over  all,  blessed 
forever,  the  Almighty  Saviour  of  the  never  dying 
soul! 


^jo     God's  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity. 


XLII. 

THE  NECESSITY  OF  A  VERBAL  INSPIRATION  PROVED 
BY  THE  ADVOCATES  OF  EVOLUTION— IF  IN  THE 
MATERIAL,  MUCH  MORE  IN  THE  SPIRITUAL  UNI- 
VERSE.—AN  IMMUTABLE  CERTAINTY  THE  ONE  ES- 
SENTIAL  ELEMENT. 

The  possibility  of  infinite  consequences  resting  on 
a  single  word,  in  the  expression  of  thought,  as  on  a 
siagle  muscle  or  nerve  and  its  position  in  the  human 
frame,  is  presented  in  the  reasoning  even  of  Prof. 
Huxley  so  distinctly,  that  his  scientific  illustration 
may  be  taken  as  a  very  impressive  argument  of  the 
necessity  of  a  strict  particular  verbal  inspiration  for 
the  guidance  and  welfare  of  men's  souls,  if  any  in- 
spiration is  admitted  at  all.  Prof.  Huxley's  Philosophy 
of  Evolution  fi-om  a  practical  eternity  without  a  per- 
sonal God  and  Saviour  does  not  admit  it,  nor  any 
personal  providential  intervention  in  our  affairs.  But 
his  argument  from  natural  necessity  in  the  physical 
universe  which  he  maintains,  appHes  with  incompar- 
ably greater  force  to  the  spiritual  which  he  rejects. 
Even  if  mind  and  matter  were  both  merely  forms 
of  a  natural  evolution  from  eternity,  without  the  di- 
recting will  of  a  Creator,  still  the  necessity  of  a  verbal 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    jji 

infallible  accuracy  and  imchangeable  fitness  remains; 
for  without  it  every  thing  might  go  to  ruin  at  any 
moment.  If  sj^uitual  truths  were  merely  evolutions 
of  material  forces,  still  they  are  confessed  to  be  the 
highest  and  most  potent  of  all,  and  consequently, 
the  formulas  or  words  in  which  they  are  conveyed 
must  be  infallibly  secure. 

"The  change  of  men  into  brutes  or  brutes  into 
men,"  says  Prof.  Huxley,  "may  hang  upon  a  breath 
of  dalnp  or  dry  air  blowing  in  the  epiglottis.  If  I 
alter  in  the  minutest  degree,  the  proportion  of  the  ner- 
vous force  now  active  in  the  two  nerves  which  supply 
the  muscles  of  my  glottis,  I  am  dumb.  The  voice  is 
produced  only  so  long  as  the  vocal  chords  are  paral- 
lel, and  then  only  so  long  as  certain  muscles  contract 
with  exact  equahty,  and  that  again  depends  on  the 
equahty  of  action  in  the  two  nerves.  The  minutest 
change  ivoidd  render  us  all  dumb.  Bat  dumb  men  would 
he  little  removed  from  the  brides." 

"What  constitutes  and  makes  man  what  he  is? 
What  but  his  power  of  language  ?  that  language  giv- 
ing him  the  means  of  recording  his  experience,  mak- 
ing every  generation  somewhat  wiser  than  its  prede- 
cessor, more  in  accordance  with  the  established  order 
of  the  universe  ?  This  power  of  speech,  which  en- 
ables men  to  be  men,  looking  before  and  after,  m 
some  dim  sense  understood,  is  the  working  of  this 


5>j^     God's  Timepiece  for  Alajis  Eternity. 

wondrous  frame,  and  wliich  distinguishes  man  from 
the  whole  of  this  brute  world." 

"Let  me,"  says  Prof.  Huxley,  "slightly  crush  to- 
gether the  bearings  of  the  balance-wheel  of  the  watch, 
or  force  to  a  slightly  different  angle  the  teeth  of  the 
escapement  of  one  of  those  bearings,  and  the  watch 
will  cease  to  go.  Let  me  puncture  the  jugular  vein, 
and  the  result  will  be  that  life  ceases.  The  brute  and 
the  man  are  no  more  different,  than  the  watch  with  and 
without  a  miain-s^oring."  *  * 

Now  then  we  rightfully  ajDply  this  proposed  ma- 
terial demonstration  to  the  spiritual  world,  and  the 
necessity  of  a  plenary  verbal  inspiration  there.  For 
the  words  are  as  the  molecules,  magnetic  and  attrac- 
tive, the  combinations  of  which  produce  organized 
thought,  and  the  certainty  and  command  of  which 
are  essential  to  exact  and  accurate  thought,  reason- 
ing, and  expression.  The  inevitable  certainty  foUows 
(a  Creator  being  admitted)  of  as  minute  and  plenary 
a  guardianship,  protection  and  infalhble  determina- 
tion by  the  Father  of  our  spirits,  of  all  the  springs 
and  links,  the  coin-words  and  key-words  of  truth, 
that  connect  our  souls  with  Him,  and  govern  our 
eternity.  There  must  be  a  moral  exactness  and  in- 
fallibility as  sure  at  least,  as  that  physical  and  mathe- 

*  See  Huxley's  "Man's  Place  in  Nature,"  and  "Origin  of 
Species,"  pp.  148,  149, 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mail  s  Eternity,    jjj 

matical  arrangement  by  which  the  moon  was  appoint- 
ed for  seasons,  and  the  sun  knoweth  his  going  down, 
and  man  his  frame  and  labor  until  the  evening.  For 
a  breath  of  expression,  the  alteration  of  a  word,  may 
produce  aU  the  difference  between  men  and  angels, 
heaven  and  hell. 

Here  again  opens  the  whole  universe  of  penal  warn- 
ings, as  absolute  and  certain  as  the  ^womises.  And 
here  again  is  our  argument,  ii'resistible,  absolute,  as 
to  the  necessity  of  all  this  portion  of  God's  disclos- 
irres  to  sinful  creatures  being  set  forth  in  language 
as  deterring,  in  words  as  chosen  and  exact,  as  suit- 
able to  the  infinite  reahties  conveyed,  as  the  other 
corresponding  heaven  of  inducements,  the  terms  of 
which  are  laid  by  God's  angels  as  coals  of  living  fire 
from  His  altar  with  His  Spirit  upon  the  soul.  And 
this  is  the  perfection  of  an  infaUible  revelation  spoken 
"not  in  words  which  man's  wisdom  teacheth,  but 
which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth,"  comparing  spiritual 
things  with  spiritual,  nothing  kej)t  back  that  was 
profitable,  no  declaration  of  the  whole  counsel  of 
God  shunned,  or  made  doubtful. 

"The  power  of  speech  in  some  dim  sense  under- 
stood," Prof.  Huxley  argues,  "  enables  men  to  be  men," 
although  in  reality  mere  machines  of  intricately  or- 
ganized and  magnetized  matter.  But  if  they  are  to 
be  angels  of  the  resurrection,   sons  of  God,  in  the 


j'j^     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

likeness  of  His  incarnate  glory,  then  how  much  greater 
the  necessity  of  an  infallible  divine  care  and  workman- 
ship in  the  word-thought  machinery,  by  the  working 
of  which  this  infinite  and  eternal  spiritual  transfigur- 
ation is  to  be  accomjDlished.  For  it  is  only  by  "  obeying 
the  truth  through  the  Spirit,  by  the  Word  of  God  which 
hveth  and  abideth  forever,"  that  sinful  men,  believing, 
are  thus  "  born  again,"  and  enabled  to  praise  their  Ee- 
deemer  and  New  Creator  forever.  Only  so,  that  by 
learning  as  httle  children  their  alphabet  in  words  of 
two  syllables  in  the  nursery  of  Christ  on  earth, 

"  They,  in  a  nobler  sweeter  song, 
May  sing  His  power  to  save, 
When  this  poor,  lisping,  stammering  tongue 
Lies  silent  in  the  grave. " 

The  necessity  of  a  verbal  inspiration  may  therefore 
be  seen  not  only  in  the  nature  of  the  painutest  escaj^e- 
ments  and  nerve-connections  of  language,  but  much 
more  in  the  concentration  and  comprehensiveness  of 
thought  contained  in  those  phrases,  in  which  are  con- 
veyed the  grandest  mysteries  of  God,  Christ,  the  Moral 
Universe ;  God's  plan,  from  the  beginning  through  the 
never-ending  ages.  These  phrases  are  the  prisms 
through  which  alone  the  Divine  Light  falls  upon  our 
understandings,  and  so  in  God's  light  we  see  light. 
Only  the  Spirit  that  revealed  i  he  t 'loughts,  could  com 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity.    j>j>5 

mand  the  forms  of  words  suitable  for  them,  the  gar- 
ments in  which  thej  can  be  made  visible,  intelligible. 
Paul's  words  may  be  taken  as  illustrations;  describing 
his  own  experience,  his  incommunicable  revelations 
from  God,  and  his  consequent  agonizing  conflicts  in 
prayer  for  others,  and  the  method  and  glory  of  God's 
love  for  lost  dying  sinners,  raising  them,  by  the  dis- 
closure of  that  love  in  Christ's  death,  from  their  death 
in  trespasses  and  sins  to  the  throne  and  likeness  of 
their  divine  and  infinitely  glorious  Saviour,  new  created 
in  his  image. 

So  the  two  vast  and  magnificent  prayers  of  Paul 
contained  in  Eph.  i.  and  iii.,  and  Philippians  iii.  8-12: 
—the  combinations  of  an  infinite  survey  of  the  nature 
and  riches  of  redemption  in  Christ,  by  laws  extending 
to  all  worlds,  with  the  means  of  the  personal  realization 
of  such  redemption,  and  its  infinite  prize  of  glory 
everlasting  in  Paul's  own  case ;  "  that  I  may  know  him, 
and  the  power  of  His  resurrection,  and  the  fellowship 
of  His  sufferings,  being  made  conformable  unto  His 
death." 

Every  phrase  has  to  be  studied  and  translated  by 
other  correspondent  shafts  of  light;  every  one  being  a 
painting  in  itself,  a  Parthenon  of  divine  revelation. 
Let  any  man  enter  amidst  these  expressions,  and  pon- 
der them,  and  ask  if  it  be  possible  that  Paul,  or  any 
other  man,  without  a  verbal  inspiration,  could   have 


Jj6     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

written  them.  An  infallible  writer  of  sucli  comnmni- 
cations  from  God  must  have  had  God  to  choose  His 
own  words  for  him. 

The  imagination  is  taken  by  these  divine  talismanic 
word-gems,  of  burning  light,  and  carried  from  point 
to  point  in  an  infinite  range  of  conceptions  through 
the  universe.  The  soul  of  the  behever  may  be  thus 
on  fire  and  active  at  the  sight  of  a  dome  of  the  Celes- 
tial City,  photograj)hed  by  John;  or  a  text  of  the  gates 
of  pearl;  or  a  mention  of  the  sardonyx,  the  ruby,  the 
chalcedony;  the  strong  and  ardent  regenerated  a£fec- 
tions  leaping  up  as  a  festal  pyrotechnic  at  the  touch 
of  a  match  in  the  hand  of  the  master.  But  in  Paul's 
words  the  thoughts  are  always  conducting  us  from  all 
our  wanderings  to  that  life-giving  sacrifice  of  Christ, 
whose  offering  on  the  Cross  made  thought  and  lan- 
guage for  us  a  blessing,  not  a  curse;  we  ourselves, 
through  the  grace  of  His  dying  love,  becoming  "  dead 
indeed  unto  sin,  but  alive  unto  God,  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord."  Every  part  of  God's  "Word,  in- 
tended for  this  divine  result,  or  beaiing  upon  it,  in 
Law,  History,  Prophecy,  Miracles,  Types,  Ceremonies, 
Sacred  Songs,  and  records  of  Faith  and  religious 
experience,  must  have  been,  as  ordered  of  God,  infal- 
libly and  verbally  true  and  important. 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    jjy 


XLIII. 

THE  EXACTNESS  AND  FULNESS  OF  DIVINE  INFORMA- 
TION AND  SPIRITUAL  LAW— "IF  IT  WERE  NOT  SO, 
I  WOULD  HAVE  TOLD  YOU  "  —  THE  GREATEST  OF 
MIRACLES,    DEPENDENT   ON  WORDS. 

Spiritual  things  with  spiritual.  Take,  for  example, 
the  contrast  between  death  and  life,  in  Eom.  v.  21, 
and  the  characteristic,  inevitable,  respective  results 
as  stated  in  ch.  vi.  23.  "For  the  wages  of  sin  is 
DEATH  :  but  the  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life,  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  What  kind  of  death,  to  an- 
swer for  a  spiritual  comparison,  since  the  death  of 
the  body  is  as  inevitable  as  its  hfe,  for  all  creatures  ? 

God's  Word  is  kept,  to  use  the  sailor's  phrase,  close 
hauled  to  the  wind  from  eternity.  There  are  calms, 
lulls,  catspaws,  gales;  but  the  steady  set  of  the  aerial 
current  of  thought  and  language  is  towards  immor- 
tality and  eternal  consequences;  and  there  are  days 
when  a  very  httle  disarrangement  between  the  saila 
and  the  wind  would  provoke  shipwreck.  There  is 
no  carelessness  with  God;  no  possibHity  of  random 
words,  or  want  of  forethought. 

It  is  instructive  to  consider  the  effect  upon  the 
whole  Word  of  God,  if  instead  of  admitting  the  sig- 
nificance of  eternity  upon  its  warnings  as  well  as  its 


jj8     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

promises,  we  deny  the  reality  of  a  retributive  harvest 
in  the  future  world  from  men's  sowings  in  this  hfe. 
Carry  such  denial  through  the  Scriptures,  and  apply 
it  as  the  measure,  the  test,  of  an  opinion  or  belief  of 
the  final  salvation  of  all  men,  and  it  would  be  like 
running  a  subsoil  ploughshare  through  an  acre  of 
medicinal  plants  and  flowers,  every  furrow  strown 
with  herbs  torn  up  by  the  roots. 

Take  the  words  of  Christ,  "  If  it  loere  not  so,  I  xoould 
have  told  you." — John  xiv.  2.  Applied  as  He  applied 
them,  to  what  ive  are  to  meet  in  the  future  world,  they  are 
of  intense  and  infinite  grasp  and  importance.  They 
show  incontrovertibly  that  no  truth  of  eternal  hearing 
on  our  faiths  and  habits  of  character  and  action  would 
he  left  out,  or  doubtful  in  a  revelation  designed  to  pre- 
pare us  for  a  future  existence.  "  In  my  Father's  house 
are  many  mansions,"  enough  for  all  who  come  to  the 
Father  through  Me.  They  shall  never  perish,  neither 
shall  any  power  pluck  them  out  of  My  Father's  hands. 
Where  I  am  there  shall  My  servants  be,  and  because 
I  LIVE,  THEY  SHALL  LIVE  ALSO.     Oh  blessed  assuraucc ! 

What  was  the  converse  of  these  proj^ositions,  or 
the  wanting  of  a  mansion  in  the  house  of  His  Father, 
or  the  perishing  of  those  who  did  not  come  to  Christ, 
or  the  abode  of  those  who  would  not  live  with  Clrrist, 
and  yet  would  be  found  existing  somewhere  without 
Him  ?     If  there   was   not   such   a   pei'ishing,   such   a 


God's  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity,    jjg 

DEATH  IN  LITE,  out  of  Christ,  if  there  was  no  danger 
of  such  eternal  death,  and  no  possibility  of  it,  I 
vx>uld  have  told  you,  and  you  need  never  have  been 
terrified  with  falsehoods  concerning  an  imaginary 
heU. 

Now  run  through  the  tenor  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
it  will  be  seen  at  once  that  there  is  neither  mystery, 
nor  uncertainty,  nor  doubt,  as  to  men's  reaping  in 
eternity  what  they  have  sowed  in  time;  but  the  con- 
sequences of  sin  are  as  eternal  as  sin  itself  is,  in 
every  sinful  being,  who  has  not  fled  for  refuge  to 
Chi'ist,  the  soul's  only  Redeemer.  Sin  and  its  ever- 
lasting consequences  are  the  reahties  out  of  which, 
and  because  of  which,  there  comes  the  revelation,  the 
offer,  of  Christ  and  His  grace.  "  If  it  were  not  so,  I 
would  have  told  you."  If  none  were  to  be  lost,  if 
none  could  be  lost  eternally,  I  would  have  told  you. 
But  in  that  case  the  whole  Bible  would  have  to  be 
written  over  again,  and  aU  that  I  have  taught  you 
of  the  terrors  of  the  judgment,  and  the  fate  of  the 
wicked  would  have  to  be  expunged. 

God  has  said,  in  the  Scriptures  which  you  confess 
are  His  Word,  that  "  the  soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall  die ; " 
and  you  know  that  the  thing  here  meant  is  not  the 
death  of  the  body,  or  the  mere  separation  of  the  soul 
from  the  body,  but  a  spiritual  death,  the  consequence 
and  experience  of  the  sins  done  and  habits  wrought 


'^^o     Gods  Thnepiece for  Mans  Eternity. 

by  the  soul  in  the  body  in  this  life.  And  I  Lave  said, 
and  tell  you  now  again,  that  if  ye  believe  not  in  Me, 
as  your  Saviour  from  your  sins,  and  come  not  to  the 
Father  through  Me  for  His  grace,  ye  shall  die  in 
your  sins,  and  where  I  am,  thither  ye  can  not  come.  "If 
it  were  not  so,  I  would  have  told  you."  If  there  were 
not  these  eternal  consequences  hanging  upon  your 
reception  and  belief  of  My  words,  or  your  rejection 
of  them,  I  need  not  have  spoken.  I  need  neither 
have  warned  you,  nor  died  for  you.  There  would 
have  been  no  adequate  reason  for  My  sacrificial  ex- 
piation, nor  any  truth  in  the  threatening  oi  dangers 
to  which  you  could  not  be  exposed.  If  there  were 
any  other  possibility  of  eternal  salvation  for  you  than 
that  which  is  offered  to  you  through  a  present  faith 
in  Me,  I  would  have  told  you.  "  I  am  the  door.  By 
Me  if  any  man  enter  in,  he  shall  be  saved.  Strive  to 
enter  in,  for  many  will  seek  to  enter  in  and  shaU  not 
be  able,  when  once  the  Master  of  the  house  hath 
risen  up  and  hath  shut  to  the  door." 

"If  it  were  not  so,  I  would  have  told  you."  For  I 
came  to  deliver  them  who  through  fear  of  death  were 
all  their  lifetime  subject  unto  bondage.  But  now  I 
teU  you.  Fear  nothing  but  that  death  of  the  soul,  and 
him  who  alone  is  able  to  inflict  it.  "  Yea,  I  say  unto 
you,  fear  him  who  is  able  to  destroy  both  soul  and 
body  in  hell."— Matt.  x.  28. 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Ma7is  Eternity.    J41 

Oh  wliat  an  infinite  reach  of  weKare  and  of  mean- 
ing, of  importance  to  man,  and  compassion  in  God, 
do  these  words  cover !  And  if  thev  can  and  must  be 
apphed  to  the  possibihty  of  there  not  being  mansions 
enough  to  offer  and  secure  in  heaven,  for  those  who 
are  on  the  way  thither  through  faith  in  Christ,  how 
much  more  to  the  dread  vast  question,  "What  shall 
it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world  and 
lose  his  own  soul  ?  Or  what  shaU  a  man  give  in 
exchange  for  his  soul  ?  '"  Can  there  be  any  other 
penalty  than  that  of  eternal  consequences  to  be  appre- 
nended  for  those  who  deUberately,  m.  this  world  of  of- 
fered mercy,  shut  themselves  out  from  such  man- 
sions; rejecting  fi-om  their  own  souls  the  grace  of  a 
new-created  character  in  Christ,  mercifully  placed 
at  their  disposal  by  Him,  that  they  may  be  pre- 
pared for  heaven,  and  saved  from  eternal  death  ? 

The  believing  spu'it  always  sees  further  than  the 
unbelie-v-ing,  and  nothing  can  commend  itself  to  the 
reason  as  more  just  than  the  principle  in  divine 
things  that  to  him  that  hath  shall  be  given,  accord- 
ing as  he  values  and  keeps  what  God  hath  already 
bestowed.  The  grace  revealed  in  God's  Word  as  a 
di\ine  gift  to  faith,  is  the  only  key  to  the  science  of 
that  Word;  the  only  method  by  which  its  treasures 
can  become  possessions  of  the  mind.  Some  men  who 
have  denied  whoUy  a  divine  inspiration  of  the  Scrip- 


j/2     God's  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity. 


tures  have  nevertheless  perceived  clearly  that  the 
supernatural  teaching  and  experience  set  forth  in 
them  are  the  only  perfect  method  of  defending  their 
truth;  and  they  only  are  consistent  reasoners,  "who 
submit  their  reason  entirely,  trudingly,  to  God's.  Deists 
within  the  Church  of  England  at  one  time  rejected 
the  supernatural,  and  regarded  all  belief  in  it  vi^ith 
as  great  a  degree  of  scorn  as  has  ever  been  expressed 
in  our  day  by  what  is  called  "modern  scientific 
thought." 

Lord  Bolingbroke  was  one  day  employed  in  the 
morning  in  his  study  reading  Calvin's  In&titutes, 
when  Dr.  Church,  a  divine  of  the  English  estabhsh- 
ment  called  on  him.  The  deist  asked  the  divine  if 
he  could  guess  what  book  it  was  that  he  had  been 
studying  ?  "  Really,  my  lord,  I  can  not,"  answered 
the  doctor.  "Well,"  said  Lord  Bolingbroke,  "it  is 
Calvin's  Institutes.  What  do  you  think  of  such  mat- 
ters?" "Oh  my  lord,  we  don't  think  about  such  an- 
tiquated stufi';  we  teach  the  plain  doctrines  of  virtue 
and  morality,  and  have  long  laid  aside  those  abstruse 
points  about  grace."*     "Look  you,  doctor,"  said  Lord 

*  Toplady,  in  his  essay  on  "Life  a  Journey,"  relates  the  fact 
that  a  great  churchman,  then  living  (August  1775),  said  to  a 
lady  of  quality,  "Do  not  tell  me  of  St.  Paul,  madam:  it  would 
nave  been  happy  for  the  Christian  Chui-ch,  if  St.  Paul  had 
never  written  a  line  of  his  epistles." 


God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity.    J4J 

Bolingbroke,  "  you  know  I  don't  believe  the  Bible  to 
be  a  divine  revelation;  hut  they  who  do  can  never  de- 
fend it  on  any  x>i'inciples  hut  the  doctrine  of  grace.  To 
say  the  truth,  I  have  at  times  been  almost  persuaded  to 
believe  it  upon  this  view  of  things;  and  there  is  one 
argument  which  has  gone  very  far  with  me  in  behalf 
of  its  authenticity,  which  is  that  the  behef  in  it  exists 
upon  earth,  even  when  committed  to  the  care  of  such 
as  you,  loho  pretend  to  helieve  it,  and  yet  deny  the  only 
principles  on  which  it  is  defensible." 


XLIV. 

A  VERBAL  INSPIRATION  AS  ESSENTIAL  AS  A  PAR- 
TICULAR PROVIDENCE  — THE  SCRIPTURES  GOD'S 
TELEGRAPHIC  STATION  P^OR  THE  UNIVERSE— THE 
GREATEST  OF  ALL  MIRACLES— THE  HABIT  OF  CON- 
JECTURES A  HABIT  OF  SKEPTICISM— THE  INIQUITY 
OF  MAKING  OBSCURITIES  THE  WEAPONS  OF  SATAN 
TO  DO  HIS  WORK. 

The  demonstrations  of  a  necessary  verbal  inspi- 
ration, in  the  terms  of  a  published  universal  law, 
having  Eternity  for  its  range,  and  aU  created  intel- 
ligences for  its  subjects,  are  as  positive,  complete, 
unquestionable,  as  those  of  a  particular  divine  Prov- 
idence, necessarily  extending  to  all  events,  influences, 
and  persons.     The  co-ordination  of  man's  free  agency 


J44     God's  "Timepiece for  Mans  Eternity. 

and  God's  foreknowledge  cannot  be  denied.  But  the 
admitted  coincidence  of  the  human  and  divine  in  the 
authorshij)  of  the  Bible,  involves  the  presence  and 
providence  of  God,  supreme  in  every  part,  in  word 
as  well  as  thought,  as  also  in  the  freedom  and  spon- 
taneity of  man,  in  order  that  the  whole  Book  may  be 
the  whole  and  infallible  truth.  For  such  it  must  be, 
if  supreme  for  Time  and  Eternity. 

The  places  of  men's  birth,  the  disciplinary  arrange- 
ments and  tenor  of  their  education,  and  the  con- 
sequences of  their  purposes,  thoughts,  opinions,  and 
actions,  together  with  the  social,  poHtical  and  moral 
facts  and  biases,  by  which  their  opinions  are  estab- 
lished, and  their  characters  and  powers  developed 
and  exerted,  are  so  linked  in  with  the  elements 
and  organizations  of  our  globe,  with  the  earth's 
configui'ation,  atmosphere,  cHmates,  clouds  and  rain, 
seasons  and  their  changes,  vegetable  productions  and 
animal  races,  that  the  minuteness,  omnipresence,  and 
activity  of  the  providence  of  God,  throughout  and 
over  all  these  things,  are  inevitable.  Such  provi- 
dence, connecting  and  interweaving  the  spiritual  and 
material,  in  what  is  called  the  "'conservation  and  cor- 
relation of  forces,"  morally  and  physically,  must  have 
been  universal,  infinite,  particular;  uniting  God's  spir- 
itual and  material  kingdoms,  and  the  perfection,  gov- 
ernment, and  protection  thereof,  in  mutual  harmony 


God's  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity.    J4^ 

and  melody.  Every  sliaft  of  liglit,  aud  all  the  laws 
of  liglit,  every  mote  in  the  sunbeams,  every  rain- 
drop, every  vai'iety  and  degree  of  strength  in  all 
the  elements,  must  have  been  determined;  and  their 
atomic  combinations,  invisible  to  us,  and  incomput- 
able, (save  only  that  we  perceive  the  absolute  ne- 
cessity of  their  being  exactly  weighed  and  meas- 
ured,) must  be  providentially  ordered  by  the  Infinite 
Intelligence,  that  has  the  care  and  compounding  of 
them. 

There  is  a  sympathy  between  the  physical  laws 
of  God's  universe  and  the  spiritual,  and  it  may  be 
that  God  will  commission  Science  to  make  discov- 
eries at  present  inconceivable,  as  to  the  connections 
and  lessons.  All  men's  sincere  researches  build  bet- 
ter than  they  know;  and  even  Caiaphases  and  Pi- 
lates,  as  well  as  Balaams,  may  be  found  again  to  have 
prophesied,  while  attempting  to  subvert  Chi'ist's  king- 
dom. Kings  will  be  nursing  fathers,  and  queens  nurs- 
ing mothers  to  the  Church.  Eoyal  Hu'ams  will  quarry 
stones,  and  fell  and  float  timbers  for  God's  Temple,  as 
in  Solomon's  time.  The  scientific  observers  of  the 
transits  of  heavenly  bodies  will  be  themselves  spirit- 
ually illumiuated,  and  armed  with  new  instruments, 
as  were  of  old  the  Bezaleels  and  Ahohabs  of  Judah 
and  Dan. 

As  God  filled  the  master  workmen  under  Moses  "  with 


j>^^     GocTs  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

the  spirit  of  God  in  wisdom  and  in  understanding, 
and  in  knowledge,  and  in  all  manner  of  workman- 
ship "  for  the  comj)letion  of  His  earthly  Tabernacle, 
so  and  much  more  for  that  not  made  with  hands. 
The  infinite  sublimities  of  the  72d  Psalm,  and  the 
forty-ninth,  sixtieth,  and  sixty-first  chapters  of  Isaiah, 
are  to  be  transacted.  "  The  Lord  shall  be  unto  thee 
an  everlasting  light,  and  thy  God  thy  glory.  For  as 
the  earth  bring eth  forth  her  bud,  and  as  the  garden 
causeth  the  things  that  are  sown  in  it  to  spring  forth, 
so  the  Lord  God  will  cause  righteousness  and  praise 
to  spring  forth  before  all  the  nations." 

How  infinite  the  privilege,  how  blissful  the  service, 
of  a  loving,  consecrated  workman,  in  preparing  the 
very  least  of  the  instrumentalities  of  this  glory !  For 
it  is  aU  ordered  of  God,  to  every  man  his  sphere, 
his  errand,  and  his  gift,  "  and  the  ministration  of 
the  Spirit  to  every  man  to  profit  withal."  Every 
man's  heartfelt  Avork  upon  and  for  the  Scriptures, 
in  every  book,  in  behalf  of  every  verse,  every  word, 
is  God's  providential  care  and  love. 

"  For  that  ye  ought  to  say.  If  the  Lord  will,  we 
shall  live,  and  do  this  or  that.  For  every  good  and 
perfect  gift  is  from  above,  and  cometh  down  from 
the  Father  of  lights,  with  whom  is  no  variableness, 
neither  shadow  of  turning."  "Of  his  own  will  be- 
gat He  us  with  the  Word  of  truth,  that  we  should 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    j^y 

be  a  kind  of  first  fruits  of  His  creatures; "  ex- 
amples, iDatterns,  first-fruits  of  the  spiritual  fruit- 
tree,  "yielding  fruit  after  his  kind,  whose  seed  is 
in  itself."  And  as  the  Volume  is  to  be  used  in  so 
manj  millions  of  varying  cases,  and  under  such 
infinite  variety  of  circumstances,  for  the  -work  of 
regeneration  by  the  Spirit  with  the  truth,  every 
word  is  important,  and  miist  have  been,  in  its  con- 
nection and  meaning,  appointed  with  special  design 
and  certainty. 

The  Scriptures  are  as  a  telegraphic  station  of 
thought  and  word  for  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  all 
inteUigent  creatures  in  it;  consequently,  every  ap- 
pointed cypher,  syllable,  signal,  arranged  and  definite; 
and  the  Supreme,  Only  Wise,  Master-Mind  using  them 
accordingly,  knowing  their  absolute  exactness  and 
importance.  A  miUtary  commander  must  not  only 
have  his  own  position,  known,  but  ah  the  distant  as 
well  as  near  correspondences  of  men  and  things  with 
it.  Every  soldier  must  be  in  his  duty,  at  his  own 
post,  as  well  as  every  regiment  and  officer.  Every 
Word  is  a  soldier  of  God,  not  to  take  the  place  of 
another,  but  having  his  own  sphere,  fitness,  activity. 
The  genius  of  a  great  general  is  tried  by  his  arrange- 
ment and  possession  of  details,  in  the  organizing  and 
handling  of  an  army,  compacted,  as  a  building,  "ac- 
cording  to   that  which  every  joint  supplieth."     The 


j^c?     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternitv. 

work  of  coral  insects  for  the  building  up  of  an  island 
or  a  continent;  the  weaving  of  an  atmosphere  for  the 
life  of  man  and  the  growth  of  all  nature,  by  exact,  in- 
variable, infallible  measurements  of  oxygen  and  nitro- 
gen; the  waves  of  motion  in  light  and  sound,  and  of 
the  elements  that  make  substance  and  color,  and  the 
correspondences  of  sense  and  sight  accordingly;  all 
intricate  and  wise  particulars  in  nature,  with  their 
known  and  immeasurable  importance,  are  symbols  or 
illustrations,  assuring  a  still  greater  definiteness  and 
certainty  in  the  language  of  the  truths  of  God's  spii-- 
itual  kingdom  for  eternity.  If  the  insjDiration  of  the 
words,  events,  personages  and  laws,  set  down  in  the 
record  of  a  divine  revelation,  were  merely  human, 
falUble,  uncertain,  then  none  of  the  securities  could 
be  trusted,  none  could  be  proved  to  have  been 
given  by  God,  or  their  requisitions  binding  on  the 
conscience. 

The  greatest  of  aU  miracles,  the  sj)iritual,  are  de- 
pendent on  the  meaning  and  use  of  human  speech, 
di\inely  adapted  and  conveyed,  attended  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  soul.  The  heart-felt,  contrite  conviction 
of  s,in  against  God  is  a  mu'acle;  being  nothing  less  than 
the  beginning  of  Eternal  Life,  an  infinite  supernat- 
ural work,  in  a  soul  dead  in  tresj^asses  and  sins. 
And  then  forgiveness  is  a  greater  miracle  still,  through 
the  blood   of  Jesus  Christ.     The  miracles   of  grace 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    J4g 


are  greater  than  those  of  providence,  for  the  last  are 
kingly  servitors  to  the  first;  but  all  in  a  connection 
inseparable,  and  dependent  on  divine  truth;  God's 
truth,  expressed  in  God's  word,  by  God's  methods, 
through  human  language.  The  whole  kingdom  of 
God  is  within  you,  all  its  miracles,  the  gift  of  spirit- 
ual sight  out  of  blindness,  out  of  obscurity,  (Is.  xxix. 
18),  the  fii-st  awakening  and  quickening  of  souls  dead 
in  trespasses  and  sins;  a  miracle  greater  than  that 
of  the  resurrection  of  the  body. 

But  all  miracles,  recorded,  taught,  known,  are 
wrought  through  words;  "He  spake,  and  it  was  done; 
He  commanded,  and  it  stood  fast;"  "by  every  word 
that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God  shall  man 
live." 

And  what  vast  consequences  may  wait  upon  the 
use  and  right  interpretation  of  one  word  may  be 
seen  in  the  instance  of  avooBev  (as  in  the  note  on 
page  301),  the  question  whether  you  will  render  it 
from  the  beginning  of  the  history  on  earth,  by  enquiries 
running  back  through  human  traditions,  and  there- 
fore chargeable  with  uncertainty,  or  from  above,  from 
heaven,  by  direct  inspiration  and  guidance  of  the 
Spirit  of  Christ,  in  whose  name,  concerning  whose 
life,  and  in  whose  service  and  love,  and  by  whose 
infaUible  guidance,  Luke  was  certainly  writing. 

"I  was  well   acquainted,"   said   Dr.   Witherspoon, 


J5<5     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

in  one  of  the  papers  of  his  Druid,  "with  a  divine, 
who  began  a  prayer  in  his  congregation  with  these 
words:  '  0  Lord,  Thou  art  the  simplest  of  all  beings!' — 
which  incensed  his  hearers  against  him  to  such  a 
degree,  that  they  accused  him  of  blasphemy: — where- 
as, the  poor  man  only  meant  to  say  that  God  was 
philosophically  simple  and  uncompounded,  altogether 
different  from  the  grossness,  divisibihty,  or  in  learned 
phrase,  discerptibility  of  matter."  His  hearers  thought 
he  was  making  God  a  simpleton.  What  if  the  choice 
of  the  words  for  a  divine  revelation  concerning  God 
and  man,  for  time  and  Eternity,  had  been  left  to  the 
culture,  taste,  knowledge,  mental  habits,  and  style  of 
the  respective  human  authors  or  writers  employed 
in  it ! 

The  various  idiosyncracies  of  language  and  style, 
characteristic  of  the  writers  of  the  Word  of  God, 
demonstrate  the  perfect  freedom  of  their  faculties 
both  in  thought  and  speech;  and  at  the  same  time 
the  necessity  of  an  infallible  divine  guidance,  and 
perfect  honesty  and  common  sense,  in  interpreting 
God's  will,  and  following  his  instructions.  Dr.  With- 
erspoon  gives  a  curious  illustration  of  combined  ig- 
norance and  obstinacy,  in  an  English  naval  com- 
mander, entrusted  with  desj)atches  from  England 
for  the  governors  of  the  provinces  of  North  America. 
The  captain  of  the  frigate  had  orders  to  proceed  to 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    ^5/ 

Georgia,  but  first  to  New  York,  then  to  the  CaroHnas, 
Virginia,  Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  and  the  Jersey  a. 
Arriving  at  New  York,  and  mentioning  his  orders  to 
the  Governor,  he  was  told,  "  If  you  will  give  me  the 
letters  for  the  governors  of  New  Jersey  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, they  shall  be  dehvered  in  forty-eight  hours; 
but  by  yoiu-  j)rescribed  route  it  will  take  three 
months."  The  commander  rephed,  I aUall  dick  to  my 
instructions. 

And  so  probably  he  attempted  that  impracticable 
entanglement  of  sea  and  land  navigation,  as  impos- 
sible as  the  pretended  combination  of  forgeries  and 
truths  in  the  law-book  of  the  Almighty.  The  British 
Admii-alty  were  in  those  days,  before  our  Revolu- 
tion, somewhat  pardonable  for  instructions  proceed- 
ing from  ignorance  of  the  colonies,  and  producing 
such  confusion  of  provinces,  distances,  and  relations 
of  space.  But  what  can  be  said  of  those  critics  on 
the  Scriptures,  and  inventors  of  canons  for  the  over- 
running and  interpretation  of  them,  who  deny  the 
authorship  of  Moses  and  the  Pentateuch,  and  send 
forth  orders  to  set  both  down  in  unknown  Apocry- 
phal regions,  and  to  visit  and  overhaul  the  whole 
Bible  accordingly,  by  the  guidance  of  a  new  chart, 
laying  down  the  whole  compass  of  documents,  au- 
thorships and  chronologies  in  prophecy  and  history, 
between  Moses  and  Malachi,  as  a  region  of  sunken 


j^2     Goc^'';  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity. 

rocks,  to  be  searched  out,  protested,  and  guarded 
against ! 

And  then  the  existence,  eras,  and  authority  of  im- 
agined fragments  of  history  and  law  are  offered  as 
realities,  together  with  conjectured  and  asserted 
Books  of  Origins,  and  famihes  of  manusciipts,  and 
revisions  of  texts,  by  "  transcrijDtional  probabilities," 
commended  to  us  as  the  oracles  of  God;  and  the 
right  use  of  them  taught  accordingly,  by  the  latest 
discoverers  of  the  doctrine  of  wholesale  forgeries  of 
the  Books  of  Moses,  foisted  on  the  whole  Jewish 
nation  more  than  eight  hundred  years  after  his 
death;  and  such  anonymous  forgeries  sanctioned  as 
a  religious  and  patriotic  habit  of  the  Hebrew  litera- 
ture, acceptable  to  God,  and  endorsed,  or  "  accommo- 
dated," by  the  Lord  Jesus,  as  wrought  by  inspiration 
of  the  Holy  Spirit ! 

The  conjectures  of  minds  that  take  the  standj)oint 
of  their  reasoning  not  within  the  hght  of  an  admitted 
inspired  record,  but  outside,  in  the  atmosphere  of  unin- 
spired human  nature,  denying  the  existence  of  any  infal- 
lible revelation,  produce  at  length  a  habit  of  inveterate  skep- 
ticism, "the holding  down  of  the  truth  in  unrighteousness." 
They  are  like  those  suspicions  among  thoughts,  which 
Lord  Bacon  says  are  like  bats  among  birds,  flying  only 
in  the  twilight:  whereas,  the  lark  soars  singing  up  to 
heaven  in  the  morning  sunlight.     No  small  portion  of 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    j^j 

the  modern  apologists  for  the  Scriptures,  and  interpre- 
ters of  the  Bible  by  analogy  of  uninspired  literature,  are 
hunters  after  suspicions  as  if  they  were  discoverers  of 
new  truths;  or  innocent  detectives  on  the  wing,  robin- 
redbreasts  or  heaven-appointed  doves,  let  loose  from 
Noah's  Ai'k  to  return  and  report.  By  them  shall  there 
be  a  new  catechism  for  the  children  after  the  flood. 

Critical  proofs  are  good  for  nothing,  except  as  co- 
inciding with  Christ's  words.  Internal  evidence  is  all 
powerful,  because  of  such  established  coincidence  with 
the  letter  and  Spirit  of  the  divine  oracles,  and  the  pur- 
pose of  Christ's  coming  for  the  redemption  of  the  soul 
from  sin  and  death  eternal.  "  Concerning  the  works 
of  men,"  said  David  in  the  17th  Psalm,  "by  the  word 
of  thy  hps  I  have  kept  me  from  the  Paths  of  the  De- 
stroyer." What  a  precious  divine  testimony  is  this  ! 
"And  herein  do  I  exercise  myself,"  says  Paul,  (Acts 
xxiv.  16,)  "to  have  always  a  conscience  void  of  offence 
toward  God  and  toward  men."  And  again,  "having  our 
hearts  sprinkled  from  an  evil  conscience,  in  full  as- 
surance OF  FAITH." 

It  was  a  demand  ex  necessitate  rei;  the  absolute  ne- 
cessity for  any  right  reasoning  in  regard  to  God,  hea- 
ven and  hell,  that  the  information  concerning  that 
which  no  ivitnens  could  behold  in  Qmst's  bosom,  or  in  the 
Eternal  World,  and  return  on  earth  to  testify,  should 
be  assured  by  infallible  divine  inspiration.     The  mes- 


55-/     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 


sengers  and  ministers  of  Christ  must  therefore,  be  wit- 
nesses by  the  Holy  Ghost,  of  things  which  the  Holy 
Ghost  only  could  reveal,  and  set  forth  in  accurate  lan- 
guage. Apart  from  such  inspiration,  mere  external 
erudition,  however  perfect  and  exact,  would  be  value- 
less, much  more  when  theories  by  conjectures  and 
doubts  are  admitted  as  jDostulates  of  reasoning. 

Prof.  Stuart,  in  a  note  on  Hug's  Introduction  to 
the  New  Testament  (page  721)  remarks  that  nearly  all 
the  writers  who,  up  to  that  time,  had  made  out  theo- 
ries as  to  the  origin  of  the  three  first  gosjjels  had  left 
out  of  sight  and  consideration  the  foot  of  the  inspiration 
of  the  authors.  It  was  not  even  an  element  of  belief, 
but  denial,  with  many.  Yet  this  fact  in  the  very  na- 
ture of  the  case,  was  the  truth  of  truths,  the  very  first 
fact  of  importance  to  be  considered;  the  very  founda- 
tion of  all  right  reasoning;  the  claim  without  which  the 
Bible  is  of  no  more  worth  to  us,  as  a  witness  of  things 
past  or  to  come,  on  earth  or  in  heaven,  than  Homer's 
Hiad.  For  by  that,  once  determined,  we  must  ever  be 
held,  as  the  final  arbiter  and  interpreter  of  all  truth 
and  certainty. 

Our  critics  are  so  oppressed  by  this  habit  of 
referring  every  thing  to  the  imj)ulse  and  idiosyn- 
crasy of  the  writer,  irrespective  of  any  supreme 
guidance  or  suggestion  of  the  words,  that  the  result 
of    their    investigations    becomes    altogether   human, 


God's  Timepiece  for  Alajis  Eternity,    jjj 

nothing  divine;  a  thing  of  mere  natural  genius  and 
culture.  The  inspii'ation  of  particulars  in  language 
being  denied,  as  also  any  guidance  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
of  natural  peculiarities,  tendencies,  preferences,  every- 
thing is  left  to  each  individual's  education,  circum- 
stances, dialect,  and  native  likelihood  of  error,  with 
ever  so  great  supposed  sincerity,  in  whatever  he 
could  not  for  himself  ascertain.  Then,  of  the  ascer- 
tained things,  why  he  left  this,  why  he  inserted  that, 
why  he  rej)eated  what  was  already  recorded  by 
another,  how  or  why  he  could  have  used  a  new 
word,  or  such  a  pronoun  as  exsivod  sometimes 
absolutely,  sometimes  abstractly;  what  imagined  rea- 
son can  possibly  be  asked  or  given,  excejit  on  the 
supposition  that  the  whole  is  overruled  or  aj)pDintcd 
by  God's  inspiration?  Yet  such  inspiration  is  from 
the  outset  denied  as  an  imj)ossibility.  And  this 
postulate  is  the  banner  of  the  benevolence  of  Phi- 
losophy and  Rationahsm  now  unfurled  and  floating 
from  the  teachings  of  some  professors  in  theological 
seminaries,  and  preachers  to  whom  Moses  and  the 
Prophets,  who  spake  of  Christ,  are  myths  as  outworn 
as  the  cradle  of  bulrushes  in  which  Moses  once 
floated,  as  a  new  born  lily,  on  the  bosom  of  His 
mother  Nile. 

The  modern  idea  of  a   new  progressive  theology 
"by  the  consultation  of  doubts  and  obscurities  as  to 


J>5<^     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

the  meaning  of  Eternity  and  eternal  realities,  may 
perhaps  lead  to  the  endowment  of  new  sacred  scientific 
professorships,  for  solution  of  the  Nebulae  of  God's 
Word,  never  yet  decyphered,  but  supposed  to  contain 
the  key  to  all  former  mysteries  and  difl&culties.  But 
this  would  be  like  inverting  a  telescope  to  look  at  the 
stars.  Time-calculations  in  cloudy  days  might  answer 
for  travellers  inland:  but  on  the  ocean  of  Eternity,  what 
then  ?  A  false  compass  or  chronometer  on  board  ship 
may  be  prevented  from  action  and  discovery,  by  the 
ship  itself  being  employed  exclusively  on  coast  or 
river  navigation,  and  never  out  at  sea.  It  wiU  be 
too  late  to  correct  mistakes,  once  the  boundary  Hne 
has  been  past  between  this  world  and  the  next, 
Time  and  Eternity. 


XLV. 

HALF-TRUTHS  WHOLE  ERRORS— ABSOLUTE  SAFETY 
ONLY  IN  THE  DIVINE  RECORD— THE  INADEQUACY 
OF  MERE  HUMAN  LANGUAGE— PAUL'S  EXPERIENCE 
OF  POWER  AND  WEAKNESS. 

From  any  revelation  which  was  half  divine  inspi- 
ration, and  half  natural  light,  or  mere  human 
investigation  by  common  reason,  common  sense,  and 
what    is    called    profane    history,   nothing    but    half- 


God's  Tiinepiece for  Mans  Eternity,    j^y 

truths  could  have  come;  aud  the  mere  human  would 
have  been  preferred  to  the  divine,  and  enthroned 
as  the  last  appeal,  because  the  first  discovered 
certainty.  If  thine  eye  be  single,  then  indeed  thy 
whole  body  shall  be  full  of  light;  but  if  evil,  darkness; 
and  how  great  that  darkness !  So  great,  so  complete, 
that  a  man,  and  even  a  corporation,  shall  contend 
with  the  utmost  fierceness,  that  it  alone  is  light,  and 
the  only  perfect  light.  See  a  wonderfid  illustration 
in  Plato's  description  of  the  Cave,  and  the  fire-light, 
and  the  men  reasoning  according  to  it.  And  yet 
the  same  men  may  have  all  their  faculties  of  mind 
and  body  in  what  they  regard  as  perfect  simplicity 
and  soundness,  so  that  they  will  biu'n  at  the  stake 
those  that  differ  from  them. 

It  is  a  truth  of  physiology  that  a  wound  in  the 
eye  may  so  draw  away  the  aqueous  humor,  ivithout  any 
injary  to  the  general  health,  as  to  produce  utter  blind- 
ness, as  effective  as  if  the  whole  external  world  were 
covered  with  a  veil.  Such  was  the  veil  upon  the 
heart  of  the  old  unbelieving  Jews,  in  full  health  in 
regard  to  this  world  and  all  its  interests,  but  utterly 
blind  as  to  Christ  and  the  Life  Eternal.  In  this 
mischief  aU  men  are  "  Jews  by  nature,  and  not  sinners 
of  the  Gentiles." 

The  minutiae  and  particularities,  so  extreme,  so  rigid, 
in  the  Hebrew  laws,  were  aU  necessary,  and  aU  had 


^^8     God's  Timepiece  for  Ma?is  Eternity. 

theii"  iudividual  meaning  and  aj^plication,  for  the 
training  of  the  conscience  toward  the  invisible  God, 
even  by  visible  realities  of  form  and  figure.  They 
were  as  the  spongioles  of  roots,  entering  into  the 
hidden  fountains  and  elements  of  eternal  principles, 
to  carry  ujd  those  principles  into  a  trunk,  and 
branches,  and  fruits,  individual  and  national.  When 
the  rules  are  grounded  in  principles,  and  grow  out 
of  them,  they  produce  buds  and  blossom.s,  leaves 
and  fruits,  for  the  concentrated  nourishment  and  life 
of  the  soul,  and  theu-  seed  is  in  themselves,  in  their 
kind. 

But  if  the  ritual  of  God's  service,  or  selected  parts 
of  it,  are  set  up  to  be  the  lords  many  and  gods  many 
over  the  conscience,  instead  of  a  guide  to  God  and 
the  teacher  of  His  love,  then  they  become  as  the 
Brazen  Serpent,  which  the  heroic  Hezekiah  destroyed 
as  Nehushtan,  the  piece  of  brass.  The  conscience  towards 
law  must  be  first  of  all  towards  God,  enlightened  by 
His  word,  and  Spirit,  and  thus  authoritative  and 
supreme.  For  unquestionably  there  may  be  a  con- 
science towards  evil,  an  evil  conscience,  seared  as  with 
a  hot  iron;  a  conscience  towards  idols,  a  warjoed  yet 
sincere  conscientiousness,  which  is  the  very  j^erfection 
of  the  despotism  of  Satan,  first  blinding  the  mind 
against  the  truth,  then  hardening  it,  fossilizing  it  in 
error  as  the  truth;  with  strong  delusion  to  believe  a 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Majis  Eternity,    j^g 

lie,  having  pleasui'e  in  unrighteousness,  and  being 
self- wrought  into  the  nature  of  that  which  they 
voluntarily  believe  and  choose. 

It  is  not  intellectual  discernment,  nor  any  mere  intu- 
itions of  genius,  that  can  create  in  the  soul  the  knowl- 
edge and  love  of  Christ,  as  the  soul's  light,  life,  and 
Redeemer.  Take  for  illustration  the  German  poet 
Goethe's  account  of  his  first  acquaintance  with  Shak- 
speare.  "The  first  page  of  his  that  I  read  made  me 
his  for  hfe;  and  when  I  had  finished  a  single  play,  I 
stood  like  one  born  blind,  on  whom  a  miraculous  hand 
bestows  sight  in  a  moment.  I  saw,  I  felt,  in  the  most 
vivid  manner,  that  my  existence  was  infinitely  ex- 
panded, everything  was  now  unknown  to  me,  and  the 
unwonted  light  pained  my  eyes.  By  little  and  little 
I  learned  to  see,  and  thanks  to  my  receptive  genius,  I 
continue  vividly  to  feel  what  I  have  won.  I  sprang 
into  the  open  air,  and  felt  for  the  first  time  that  I  had 
hands  and  feet.  And  now  that  I  see  how  much  injury 
the  men  of  rule  did  vie  in  their  dungeon,  and  how  many 
free  souls  stQl  crouch  there,  my  heart  would  burst,  if 
I  did  not  declare  war  against  them,  and  did  not  daily 
seek  to  batter  down  their  towers.  "^ — - 

Compare  this  enthusiasm  and  worship  of  a  human 
production  with  the  great  German  poet's  treatment  of 
the  gospels.  It  was  not  any  want  of  susceptibility  to 
be  moved,  nor  of  power  of  pei'ception,  where  honor 


j6o     God's  Timepiece  for  Maris  Eternity. 

one  of  another  was  concerned,  that  prevented  the 
same  ardent  admiration  of  the  words  of  Christ,  but 
Christ's  own  sad  question,  "  How  can  ye  believe,  which 
receive  honor  one  of  another,  but  seek  not  the  honor 
which  cometh  from  God  only  ?  " 

The  demonstration  itself,  to  us,  of  His  being  for 
us  that  Way,  that  Truth,  that  Life,  rests  therefore 
in  this,  His  perfect  conformity  with  the  original  draft, 
in  the  body  of  that  writing,  which,  by  such  conform- 
ity, He  proves  irresistibly  to  be  from  God;  and  which 
we  can  prove  to  our  own  satisfaction  and  full  assur- 
ance of  understanding,  only  by  coming  personally  our- 
selves to  Christ,  and  trying  His  life.  His  love,  upon 
and  within  our  own  souls.  I  know  whom  I  have 
BELIEVED.  How  cau  any  man  otherwise  ever  come 
to  the  knowledge,  by  experience,  of  life  eternal,  in 
God,  in  Christ,  in  time  or  eternity? 

It  is  only  by  faith  that  this  knowledge  is  ever 
possible.  He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  of  God  hath 
the  witness  in  himself,  in  Christ,  within  him,  the 
hope  of  glory,  the  Author  and  Finisher  of  faith.  He 
that  believeth  not  God's  word,  hath  made  Him  a  har, 
because  he  believeth  not  the  record  that  God  gave  of  His 
Son.  And  this  is  the  record,  that  God  hath  given 
to  us  eternal  life,  and  this  life  is  in  His  Son,  Him- 
self THE  LIFE.  He  that  hath  the  Son  hath  life;  he  that 
hath  not  the  Son  of  Ood  hath  not  life.     These  things 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    j6i 

have  I  written,  that  ye  may  know  that  ye  have  eternal 
life,  and  that  ye  may  behave  on  the  name  of  the  Son 
of  God.— 1  John  v.  13. 

This  is  the  style  of  ineffable  divine  certainty — icliat 
the  Spirit  saith  unto  the  churches.  He  that  hath  an 
ear  let  him  hear  this,  even  according  as  Christ  Him- 
self heard  and  obeyed  unto  death,  this  formula  of 
God's  covenant  and  will,  It  is  written. 

How  many  men,  striving  to  enunciate  what  they 
did  not  clearly  comprehend,  have  lost  themselves  in 
verbiage,  so  that  the  reader  or  hearer  has  to  cry 
out  for  an  interpreter,  or  even  a  pUot  with  a  fog- 
horn, to  guide  him  out  of  the  confusion.  Except 
a  man  can  interj)ret,  of  what  avail  are  his  volu- 
bnities  of  tongues  ?  Paul  himself,  and  his  four- 
teenth chapter  of  First  Corinthians,  are  joroofs  of  the 
necessity  of  a  verbal  inspiration  in  the  ministry  of 
divine,  soul-saving  truths  for  all  souls  through  all 
ages.  "I  thank  my  God  that  I  speak  with  tongues 
more  than  ye  aU.  Yet  in  the  church  I  had  rather 
speak  five  words  with  my  understanding,  that  I 
might  teach  others  also,  than  ten  thousand  words 
in  an  unknown  tongue."  Therefore,  "Let  him  that 
speaketh  pray  that  he  may  interpret." 

Paul  himself  could  speak  with  tongues  and  interpret, 
only  by  the  Holy  Spirit  in  his  own  heart  and  mind, 
guiding  him  for  that  very  purpose,  in  words  that  the 


j62     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 


Holy  Ghost  teacheth.  For  that  let  every  minister  of 
Christ  pray.  But  he  cannot  even  pray  aright,  except 
by  the  Holy  Ghost  teaching  him  how  to  pray.  And 
the  Holy  Spirit  vpill  thus  go  with  His  words  from 
his  heart,  and  will  be  the  living  and  illuminating 
fire,  the  heavenly  magnetism.  What  are  even  the 
best  words  without  that?  Do  we  not  know  that 
when  this  physical  frame  of  our  earthly  nature  is 
charged  with  electricity,  we  can  light  the  gas  by 
the  touch  of  our  knuckles?  And  even  so,  when  a 
man's  own  sovd  is  charged  with  the  fire  of  God 
by  the  Divine  Spirit,  he  can  set  souls  on  fire;  but 
not  otherwise.  How  much  more  at  the  foundation 
of  the  Christian  faith  for  aU  ages  and  aU  souls, 
must  there  be  the  words  of  eternal  truth,  bu^rning 
with  and  by  the  Spu'it  that  indited  them,  and  as 
absolutely  true  as  God  is  true;  words  coined  by 
God,  because  omniscience  alone  and  infinite  Love 
could  inspire  them,  and  the  j^ulses  of  the  same  love 
in  human  ministries  are  to  beat  with  them. 

How  often  do  writers  of  the  greatest  power  find 
extreme  difficulty  in  putting  into  language  satisfac- 
tory to  themselves  the  conceiDtions,  the  thoughts, 
which  they  desu-ed  to  express,  but  have  found  them- 
selves almost  in  despau'  at  the  confessed  inadequacy 
of  their  own  expressions.  Plato,  John  Foster,  De 
Quincey,  Coleridge,  Pascal,  Locke,  Stuart  Mill,  Kant, 


God^s  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    j6j 

Jolin  Howe — men  of  all  languages,  researches,  be- 
liefs, pursuits;  naturalists,  philologists,  psychologists, 
anatomists  of  body  and  soul,  metaphysicians,  biolo- 
gists, theologians,  poets,  mathematicians,  confessing 
that  language  itself  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  mysteries, 
and  perfect  simplicity,  profoundness  and  exactness  in 
the  use  of  it  an  impossible  attainment.  But  in  "  the 
Volume  of  the  Book  wkitten  of  Me"  there  is  this 
tri-unity  of  qualities;  simphcity  in  word,  infinitude 
in  meaning,  and  exactness  in  expression;  so  that  he 
may  run  that  readeth,  or  read  running. 

They  are  words  that  shall  never  pass  away,  though 
heaven  and  earth  shaU  pass;  a  judgment,  and  truths, 
and  modes  of  reasoning,  that  are  made  to  red  for 
a  light  of  the  jxople;  words  of  God  in  the  mouth, 
and  His  Spirit  in  the  heart,  even  of  babes  and  suck- 
lings. The  simpler  the  words,  the  more  perfect  and 
absolute  the  proof  that  God  Himself  chose  them  and 
inspired  them;  as  in  the  Gospel  of  John,  perhaps 
the  most  radiant  with  divine  demonstration  of  all 
the  volume,  and  yet  the  most  childlike  and  artless; 
simple  and  transparent  as  the  air,  profound  and 
measureless  as  space.  Who  can  account  for  the 
miracle,  or  who  can  deny  it? 

If  this  be  true  in  regard  to  men's  efforts  to  catch 
and  flash  upon  the  screen  the  variations  and  almost 
infinite   excursions   of  their  own  minds,    uninspired, 


^6^     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eter^iity. 

so  that  they  cry  out  of  the  depths,  O  for  a  super- 
natural dialect,  as  swiftly  at  command  as  the  light- 
ning-like revelations  that  encomjDass  and  outrun  all 
our  powers  of  expression ! — how  much  greater  the 
necessity  of  a  verbal  realization,  an  inspired  con- 
veyance, for  those  divine  thoughts,  that  as  the 
heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth,  so  are  higher 
than  man's  thoughts,  and  are  not  man's  thoughts  at 
all,  but  only  God's  revealed  to  man  for  his  study 
and  obedience !  And  so  is  the  word  that  goeth 
forth  out  of  God's  mouth,  not  in  cataractical  con- 
fused masses,  but  gentle  and  gradual,  as  the  drojDS 
of  the  rain,  to  accomplish  that  which  He  pleases; 
jewels  of  expression,  framed  for  His  own  thoughts, 
and  accomj)anied  by  His  own  Spirit. 

One  wotdd  give  a  miUion  pounds  sterhng,  if  he 
had  it,  for  the  invention  of  a  psyckograph,  or  jjhoto- 
graph  of  thought,  in  accurate  and  adequate  language, 
as  the  flash  of  light  first  rises  in  the  soul.  What 
an  infinitude  of  labor  it  would  save,  and  wresthngs 
of  second  thoughts,  against  the  first,  or  of  doubts 
against  reahties;  what  instant  visions  it  would  give 
of  the  nature  of  plans  or  piu'poses  of  good  or  evD, 
half-formed;  but  if  evil,  then,  the  moment  they  are 
thrown  upon  paper,  arrested,  and  remaining  only 
as  evidence  of  what  would  have  been  reality,  if  not 
seen  and  known  as  soon   as   existing,    and   perhaps 


God's  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity.    j6^ 

annihilated  as  soon  as  seen.  "Thou  understand- 
est  my  thought  afar  off.  Thou  compassest  my  i^atU 
and  my  lying  down,  and  art  acquainted  with  all 
my  ways."  God  must  do  this,  and  judge  mankind 
accordingly,  or  he  would  not  be  God.  And  there 
must  be  some  kind  of  telephone  playing  into  *the 
eternal  world,  with  intelligible  cyphers  dotted  in 
the  book  of  judgment,  disclosing  what  is  going  on 
here.  The  conscience  toward  God  is  such  a  faithful 
and  infaUible  witness,  and  even  in  its  earhest  glim- 
merings what  a  power  of  language  and  coloring  it 
possesses !  What  worlds  of  refuse,  and  of  lumber, 
fit  only  for  the  chaos  of  Gehenna,  might  be  pre- 
vented, if  each  man's  sotd  were  such  a  stenographic 
recorder,  or  reporter  aloud,  in  plain  language  ! 

A  cardiphone,  an  utterance  of  the  heart,  a  detecti- 
phone,  reporting  at  once  to  the  self-consciousness 
and  to  God !  What  a  shield  it  might  be  against 
the  malignities  and  fiery  darts  of  the  Wicked  One! 
And  what  a  gift  of  divine  jDower  would  a  good  man 
have,  if  his  incommunicable,  inexpressible  revela- 
tions, aspirations,  presciences  of  the  unseen  and 
eternal,  could  be  written  down  at  the  very  instant 
of  their  momentary  consciousness !  For  we  often 
have  a  conscious  insight  of  such  profound  immeas- 
urable power  and  glory,  of  such  irresistible,  all- 
compelling  demonstration  of  truth,  as,  if  completely 


^66     God's  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity. 

uttered,  and  conveyed  as  soon  and  as  distinctly  as  a 
flash  of  liglitning  at  midnight,  would  overcome  aU 
oi^positions,  of  all  minds,  all  worlds.  But  we  lose 
it  in  the  very  attemjDt  to  describe  it,  or  translate 
it  into  language.  And  all  efforts  are  vain  to  sat- 
isfy even  our  own  ideal  of  it.  But  an  infallible 
revelation  from  God  must  possess  these  command- 
ing quahties  of  thought  and  uttei-ance,  to  justify  God 
in  hanging  upon  its  words  an  eternal  judgment 
of  His  own  character,  and  that  of  His  intelligent 
accountable  creatures,  in  His  own  sight  and  in  theirs. 
"That  thou  might  be  clear  when  Thou  judgest,  and 
be  justified  when  Thou  speaketh." 

"  Men  owe  it  to  God,"  said  Pascal,  "  to  receive  the 
religion  which  He  sends;  God  owes  it  to  men,  not  to 
lead  them  into  error."  (Pascal's  "Thoughts,"  ch.  20.) 
"  To  lead  into  error,"  Pascal  adds,  "  is  to  place  man 
under  the  necessity  of  assuming  and  apjoroving 
falsehood.  This  God  cannot  do;  and  yet  He  would 
do  this,  if  in  an  obscure  question.  He  permitted  mir- 
acles to  be  wrought  on  the  side  of  falsehood."  This 
is  absolutely  impossible.  God  Himself  therefore  is 
ever  with  us,  the  Interpreter  and  Guardian  of  His 
Own  Truth. 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    j6j 


XLYI. 

PRAYERS  AND  PREACHING  OF  THE  APOSTLES— DEVEL- 
OPMENT AND  INCREASE  OF  ILLUMIMATIONS  IN  GOD'S 
KINGDOMS  OF  NATURE  AND  GRACE— INCALCULABLE 
MINUTENESS  AND  GRANDEUR  IN  WORD  AND  WORKS 
—OUR  LORD'S  EXAMPLE  OF  A  PRIORI  REASONING- 
ARCHBISHOP  LEIGHTON'S  EXPERIENCE. 

There  is  no  report  on  record,  no  inspired  account 
of  the  words  of  the  early  preachers,  nor  examj^le 
of  their  power  in  preaching  or  praying,  save  only 
in  two  or  three  chapters  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
and  in  the  prayers  of  the  Apostle  Paul.  And  though 
these  are  great  masses  of  truth,  shafts  of  light  con- 
centrated, yet  all  the  rest  has  to  be  imagined,  all 
the  work  of  the  divine  Spirit  in  the  men  going  forth 
from  Pentecost,  under  the  power  of  the  first  bap- 
tism, and  all  the  fervor  and  power  of  their  successors. 
The  superhuman  electricity,  awakening  vividness  and 
persuasion  of  their  eloquence,  the  divine  lightning, 
the  j)hrases  condensed  with  thought  in  the  words 
taught  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  piercing  through 
the  soul;  the  starthng  earnestness,  the  flame  of  knowl- 
edge from  infinite  depths  of  anguish  and  of  joy  in 
their  own  experience,  the  pleading,  the  tears,  the 
weeping    fervor    and    fire,    the    infinite   -comi^assion 


^68     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

and  love,  the  celestial  radiance  of  the  soul  in 
its  peace  and  blessedness  of  Christ;  the  reahties  of 
sin,  death,  the  judgment,  heaven,  hell; — all  these 
creations  to  the  sight,  of  spiritual  worlds,  spu-itual 
thought,  scenery,  experience,  things  seen  and  known 
of  Christ,  and  spoken  forth  fi'om  His  indwelling  and 
inspiration  in  the  soul,  and  in  words  taught  by  the 
Holy  Spirit; — constituted  a  whirlwind  flame  of  .elo- 
quence, a  winged  burning  chariot,  full  of  eyes  and 
voices,  as  in  Ezekiel's  vision,  di'awing  hearers  and 
seers  within  the  sweej)  of  its  attraction,  rolling 
through  the  cities  and  neighborhoods  of  the  Jewish 
and  heathen  world,  as  apocalyptic  orbs  of  celestial 
fire  and  glory. 

There  is  no  description  of  it,  but  it  was  the  out- 
pouring of  a  divine  life,  in  suffering  and  redeeming 
intensity,  and  the  rapid  diffusion  of  Christianity  fol- 
lowed in  its  train.  They  that  wielded  this  power, 
out  of  Christ's  love  constraining  them,  were  filled 
with  divine  consolation  in  the  use  of  it;  it  was  the 
life  and  blessedness  as  of  angels  to  them  on  earth, 
to  speak  thus  of  Chi-ist  and  His  love;  and  for  all  that 
they  had  reHnquished  or  suffered  in  this  world  they 
received  a  hundred-fold,  in  the  bhss  of  this  very 
service. 

Think  of  the  multitude  of  illuminations  and  illus- 
trations of  the  Scriptures,  flashing  as  a  sea  of  diamonds 


God's  Timepiece  for  Alan  s  Eteriiity.    j6c^ 

mingled  with  fire,  now  coming  into  knowledge  almost 
universal,  through  periodicals  and  papers  in  every 
tongue,  and  demonstrated  by  increasing  millions  of 
Christian  minds  and  hearts  out  of  their  own  blissful 
experience.  This  is  God's  progressive  work,  how 
gradual,  yet  how  irresistible  !  And  the  law  and  condi- 
tion of  all  this  growth,  with  all  and  in  all  that  receive 
it  from  the  Scriptures,  is  that  of  God's  providence  and 
light,  interpreted  and  applied  by  the  Holy  Spirit  iu 
the  soul.  The  infinite  wonders  brought  to  view  through 
the  telescope  and  microscope,  in  material  worlds,  are 
but  an  approximative  illustration  of  what  God  is  doing 
in  the  spiritual  universe. 

Consider  the  working  of  light  within  the  atoms  of 
different  substances,  according  to  positions  and  angles 
of  incidence,  refraction,  reflection,  medium,  polaiization, 
repetition.  There  is  as  great  a  variety  in  unit}^,  by 
the  working  of  spiritual  light  in  more  minds,  than 
atoms.  The  discovery  of  the  polarization  of  light  was  a.s 
a  new  creation.  And  such  is  the  revealing  effect  of  th3 
rays  of  spiritual  truth  upon  the  inward  texture  and 
organization  of  souls;  Ughtning  like,  so  sudden,  but 
Godlike,  so  immutable  and  eternal. 

We  have  experience  of  polarized  light,  even  in  our 
hours  and  moments  of  prayer,  and  in  the  revelations  to 
faith  produced  by  it.  For  prayer  by  faith  ("  praying 
in  the  Holy  Ghost "),  is  to  the  soial  as  Lord  Rosse's  great 


J/0     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Ete7niity\ 

Telescope;  and  as  the  vision  sweeps  round  the  infini- 
tudes, it  opens  new  unfathomable  abysses,  that  in  their 
very  darkness  show  the  unsearchableness  of  the  hght 
itself  that  discovers  them,  and  new  immeasurable  con- 
tinents of  worlds,  as  islands,  in  eternal  boundless 
space;  and  still,  light  reflected  from  all;  apocalyptic 
light,  constructing,  organizing,  living,  growing,  weav- 
ing, renewing,  changing.  It  is  God's  light  and  God's 
providence  that  opens  all  this  glory  in  and  ujDon  His 
creatures.  "  In  Thy  light  shall  we  see  light."  Mate- 
rial astronomy  is  counterparted  and  illumined  by  the 
other  infinite  spiritual  universe,  under  God's  law  of 
Love. 

And  now,  if  it  has  taken  so  many  thousand  years  to 
discover  and  apply  by  genuine  mathematical  calcula- 
tions and  evidence,  some  of  the  laws  of  matter  in  God's 
visible  tangible  universe,  how  much  more  must  it  re- 
quire of  dihgence  and  time,  with  spiritual  humilit}'^  and 
waiting  upon  God,  to  discern  the  times  and  seasons 
which  the  Father  hath  i3ut  in  His  own  power;  and  the 
visitations,  workings,  limitations,  and  possible  spheres 
and  conquests  of  thought,  through  the  patient  study 
and  application  of  His  Word,  by  faith  and  prayer; — 
and  all  this  in  a  state  of  being  and  action,  where  the 
voluntary  exercise  of  these  quaUties,  and  improvement 
of  these  gifts,  are  offered  as  the  securities  of  an  eternal 
progress  in  the  beatifying  knowledge  of  God. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    jyi 

Our  Lord  Jesus  was  certaml}^  the  Master  of  a  priori 
reasoning  in  regard  to  the  Word  and  attributes  of  God, 
"  Ought  not  Christ  to  have  suffered  these  things  and 
to  enter  into  His  glory  ?  "  What  a  mountain-mine  of 
intelligence  in  that  question!  The  ought  not,  was 
grounded  on  what  had  been  written  of  God  before- 
hand in  the  Scriptures,  and  was  not  here  expounded 
merely  of  any  moral  necessity  or  propriety  in  the  na- 
ture of  things,  or  in  God's  attributes,  but  because  it  had 
been  so  set  down  in  God's  Word. 

The  Lord  Jesus  showed  His  disciples,  by  the  revel- 
ation of  His  own  nature,  how  to  see  His  foreshin- 
ing  radiant  image  in  the  Scriptures.  It  was  as  if  He 
had  taken  a  steel  mirror,  which  had  been  overclouded 
and  stained  by  using  it  for  pressing  herbs,  or  for  haii*- 
dressing,  (for  even  thus  had  the  Jews  abused  and 
perverted  their  own  Scriptures  for  the  uses  of  this 
world;)  as  if  He  had  taken  such  a  mirror,  and  wiping 
it  clean,  and  making  the  reflection  pure  and  jjerfect. 
had  bent  His  own  face  over  it,  and  then  called  His  dis- 
ciples to  look  at  the  image  of  His  whole  being  in  its 
depths. 

For  so  it  was,  that  in  all  the  Scriptures,  after  His 
death  and  resurrection.  He  showed  them  Himself,  in 
His  sufferings  and  glory;  Himself,  in  the  human  and 
divine;  Himself,  as  the  teaching,  miracle-working,  cru- 
cified, dying,  Self-existent  Lord;  Himself,  the  buried 


37^    Gods  Timepiece  f 07'  Mans  Eternity. 

and  risen,  ascended  and  enthroned  Almighty  Sa- 
yiour  ; — all  now  as  clear  as  the  sun  ;  His  whole  fore- 
shown and  afterwards  reflected  attributes,  through 
eternity,  the  same,  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever. 

And  the  same  divine  Spirit  of  Christ  which  was  in 
them  foretelling  and  instructing,  must  be  with  and  in 
us,  showing  what  they  saw,  showing  the  fulfilment, 
clearing  and  quickening  our  vision,  removing  our  er- 
rors, correcting  our  mistakes,  preaching  unto  us  the 
gospel  with  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from  Heaven. 
The  angels  desire  to  look  into  these  things,  fellow- 
students  with  us;  and  the  Holy  Ghost  from  Heaven  is 
as  necessary  for  our  enlightenment  as  for  theirs.  God 
grant  we  may  neither  despise  nor  reject  nor  deny  it. 

But  we  are  dependent  on  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  on 
the  presence  of  Christ  dwelling  in  our  hearts  by  faith, 
for  the  climate  of  our  soiils,  through  the  breathing  of  a 
Saviour's  love. 

The  climate  of  our  souls !  A  world  of  illustrations 
from  the  physical  to  the  spiritual  creation  is  opened 
before  us  by  this  expression.  Take  some  of  the  in- 
stances of  truth  reverberating  from  the  material  to 
the  immortal.  "  In  that  aerial  ocean,"  says  Hum- 
boldt, ' '  on  the  shoals  of  which  we  live,  the  climate 
of  our  own  region  depends  on  the  variations  of  the 
atmosphere  as  to  temperature  and  moisture,  den- 
sity,  pressure,   oxygen,  and   electricity,   polarization, 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    jyj 

magnetic  resonance  and  purity;  "but  greatly  also  on 
the  degree  of  ordinary  transjyarency  and  clearness  of 
the  sky,  which  is  not  only  important  in  respect  to 
the  increased  radiation  from  the  earth,  the  organic 
development  of  plants,  and  the  ripening  of  fruits,  but 
also  with  reference  to  its  effect  on  the  feelings  and  con- 
dition of  inen."^  Out  of  the  laws  of  the  visible  and 
tangible  creation  of  Grod,  the  invisible  and  eternal 
may  be  known  and  illustrated,  or  impressively  tyjoi- 
ped.  The  spiritual  atmosphere  of  our  own  heart  and 
life  depends  on  Christ  in  us  the  hope  of  glory,  and 
on  the  inspiration  of  His  love,  producing  all  that  we 
ever  possess  of  sincerity,  freedom  from  selfishness, 
a  single  eye,  a  contrite  mind,  a  regard  to  the  divine 
approbation,  through  the  love  of  Christ  constrain- 
ing us. 

Thus  the  invariable  transparency  and  clearness  of 
the  firmament  of  God's  Word  (forever,  O  Lord,  Thy 
"Word  is  settled  in  heaven),  and  the  exceeding  and 
eternal  brightness  of  divine  truth  and  glory,  shining 
in  the   face   of  Jesus  Christ,    down  into  the   heart, 

*  See  the  illustrations  in  Humboldt's  Cosmos,  Vol.  I.  pp. 
292-369.  "A  physical  delineation  of  Nature  terminates  at  the 
point  where  the  sphere  of  intellect  begins,  and  a  new  world  of 
mind  is  opened  to  our  view."  "Language,  more  than  any  other 
attribute  of  mankind,  binds  together  the  whole  human  race," 
and  carries  our  thought  into  eternity. 


j/^     God's  Tii7tepiece for  Mans  Eternity. 

tlirough  the  atmospliere  of  the  love  of  Christ,  will  pro- 
duce a  gracious  and  fruitful  experience,  filling  the 
soul,  and  at  length  the  whole  earth,  with  all  the  ful- 
ness of  God.  Thus  God  and  the  universe,  heaven 
and  the  world,  are  mutually  illuminated;  and  so  is 
the  only  way  of  knowing  God's  spiritual  kingdom 
in  all  worlds,  and  becoming  heirs  of  God  and  joint 
heirs  with  Christ,  by  His  own  new-creating  Spirit 
of  love  and  of  power  and  of  a  sound  mind.  Again, 
take  the  illustrative  fact  that  "  every  part  of  the 
earth's  surface  absorbs  and  radiates  heat  at  the  same 
time,  and  that  the  power  of  radiation  is  always  equal 
to  the  j)ower  of  absorption."  Even  so  the  power 
of  magnetic  radiation  in  the  soul,  the  power  of  com- 
municating divine  truth,  is  always  equal  to  the  power 
of  faith  in  receiving  and  absorbing  the  light  and  love 
of  Christ  in  His  Word.  And  both  are  dependent  on 
the  habit  of  obedient  and  constant  working  by  love 
with  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  committed  to  the  heart 
for  this  purpose.  As  it  is  used,  so  it  increases,  both 
in  depth  and  intensity,  in  volume  and  in  power. 

We  are  better  prepared  for  a  childlike  faith  in  every 
jot  and  tittle,  of  God's  Word,  than  those  children  in 
the  market  place  could  have  been,  to  whom  Christ 
preached  concerning  the  lilies  of  the  field;  since, 
through  the  microscope,  "  organized  beings,  possess- 
ing life,  and  exercising  all  its  functions,  have  been  dis- 


God  s  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    jj^ 

covered  so  minute,  that  a  million  of  them  would  oc- 
cupy less  space  than  a  grain  of  sand;  so  that  what 
before  were  imaginary  things  are  now  real  beings, 
with  definite  weights,  and  uniting  by  fixed  laws."  * 
With  what  intense  interest  and  reverence,  must  every 
intelligent  being  ponder  the  progress  of  Science,  in 
the  light  reflected  fi'om  and  upon  the  sublime  ques- 
tions of  natural  and  spiritual  Theology  in  Job.  "Dost 
thou  know  the  balancings  of  the  clouds,  or  the  way  in 
which  light  is  parted,  and  the  firmament  spread  abroad, 
and  the  dust  of  the  orbs  of  heaven  weighed  and  meas- 
ured by  Jehovah's  counsels,  judging  and  governing 
the  earth  and  the  people,  the  ivicked  and  the  good,  by 
them?" 

The  possible  dependencies  of  nations  on  a  word 
and  its  wrong  or  right  pronouncement,  are  illustrated 
in  the  Book  of  Judges,  xii.  6  (whether  Shibboleth  or 
Sibboleth),  the  tribe  of  Ephraim  being  almost  anni- 
hilated by  a  slip  of  the  tongue.  Was  it  accidental? 
Can  anything'  be  accidental  under  God's  government  ? 
Was  there  not  a  wise,  holy,  and  retributive  provi- 
dence there,  connecting  heart  and  tongue,  syllables 

*  See  Mrs.  Somerville's  "Physical  Geography,"  chapters  xxi. 
and  xxu.,  and  pp.  268,  299.  Compare  also  Arnold  Guyot  on  the 
"Earth  and  Man,"  together  with  Mary  Somerville's  instructive 
volume  on  the  "Connection  of  the  Physical  Sciences,"  Harper's 
Edition,  from  the  seventh  London. 


.jj6     God's  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity. 

and  moral  habits  and  consequences  ?  Such  an  event 
is  but  one  of  God's  j^risms  for  analyzing  hght,  and 
throwing  its  responsibilities  of  knowledge  into  eter- 
nity. The  minuteness  of  causes  is  an  infinite  and  sol- 
emn wonder.  What  a  world  of  spiritual  lessons  in 
the  study  of  atoms  and  their  combinations,  in  physical 
and  mental  organizations,  and  in  the  elementary  chem- 
istry of  the  earth  and  man!  What  warnings  in  the 
investigations  of  miasma  on  the  earth  or  in  the  air, 
and  in  accepted  hereditary  beliefs,  in  currents  of 
opinion  and  prejudice,  in  pregnant  false  axioms  and 
seeds  of  error  and  misery!  The  very  hairs  of  our 
heads  are  all  numbered.  And  so  one  half  of  God's 
universe  looks  down  into  the  other  as  a  mii-ror  of  its 
meaning  and  its  laws. 

How  then  can  a  verbal  inspiration  in  God's  Book 
OF  THE  SOUL  be  denied,  when  it  is  not  only  admitted, 
but  woven  into  the  very  demonstrations  of  science, 
in  the  Book  of  Nature,  and  taught  by  scientific  men 
as  a  postvdate  of  philosophy?  There  must  be  an 
omnipresent,  all-determining  and  arranging  Provi- 
dence, in  Nature  as  well  as  Man,  in  the  letters  and 
syllables  that  spell  and  mean  Eternity. 

For  God  hath  "  set  one  thing  over  against  an- 
other"; and  the  world,  which  is  man's  birthplace 
and  standing  stool,  is  full  of  educational  analogies, 
"and  whatsoever  God  doeth,  it  shall  be  forever";  it 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Maits  Eternity,    jyj 

hath  that  meaning  for  man,  "  That  men  should  fear 
before  Him  ";  and  for  that,  "every  thing  is  beautiful 
in  His  time."  The  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  is  full  of 
these  disclosures  of  Time  for  Eternity,  and  of  God's 
work  for  man's  Immortality.  But  we  are  carried 
back  into  the  first  volume  of  science  ever  written  or 
known  on  earth,  for  man's  guidance,  by  the  culmi- 
nation and  comparison  of  the  discoveries  of  five 
thousand  years.  The  treasures  of  hiformation,  and 
the  vast  and  profound  generalizations,  brought  to- 
gether in  modern  works  on  the  Connexions  of  the 
Physical  Sciences,  the  phraseology  and  the  proofs 
of  the  laws  weighing,  measuring  and  balancing  the 
globe  and  aU  its  elements,  with  the  definite  and  rel- 
ative proportions  of  atoms,  and  the  processes  of  light, 
heat,  combustion,  magnetism,  electricity,  temperature, 
in  the  earth  and  its  atmosphere; — all  these  disclos- 
ures are  just  a  providential  commentary  on  the  Scrip- 
tures, as  unintentional,  many  times,  from  mount  to 
mount,  from  altar  to  altar,  as  Balaam's  majestic 
prophecies ;  yet  all  concluding,  "NVhat  hath  God 
wrought!  and  teaching,  Let  me  die  the  death  of 
the  righteous,  and  let  my  last  end  be  like  His! 

"  Heaven  is  My  throne,  and  the  earth  My  footstool, 
saith  the  Almighty;  but  I  create  new  heavens  and  a 
new  earth,  and  to  this  man  will  I  look,  even  to  him 
that  is  poor  and  of  a  contrite  spirit,  and  who  trem- 


j/c?     Gods  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity. 

bieth  ai  My  icord."  Compare  with  this,  and  under- 
stand by  it,  our  Lord's  first  benediction,  "Blessed 
are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven." 

The  soul  to  be  saved  from  eternal  death,  and  Christ, 
the  only  Being  that  can  save  it,  are  the  combination  key 
for  our  commanding  and  opening  of  the  Spiritual 
Safe  given  to  us  in  the  Scriptures.  A  man  may 
err  in  many  things,  but  if  he  keep  those  two,  he 
is  honest  and  safe,  and  gets  into  the  heart  of  God's 
Safe  in  Christ,  and  there  God  will  keep  him.  "  For 
whatsoever  things  were  written  aforetime  were  wi'itten 
for  our.  learning,  that  we,  through  patience  and  com- 
fort OF  THE  Scriptures,  might  have  hope."  The  soul 
to  be  saved  by  faith  in  Christ,  is  the  all  in  all,  from 
Genesis  to  the  Apocalypse. 

Archbishop  Leighton  used  to  say,  "I  prefer-  an  er- 
roneous honest  man  before  the  most  orthodox  knave 
in  the  world;  and  I  would  rather  convince  a  man 
that  he  has  a  soul  to  be  saved,  and  induce  him  to  live 
up  to  that  belief,  than  bring  him  over  to  my  opinion 
in  whatever . else  besides."  He  could  say,  Whatever 
else  I  leave  undone,  one  thing  I  do;  seek  for  soids, 
that  they  may  be  saved,  not  lost  forever.  And  these 
he  sought  among  men  of  all  persuasions.  A  friend, 
calling  upon  him  one  day,  and  not  finding  him, 
learned  that  he  had  gone  to  visit  a  sick  Presbyterian 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mmis  Eternity,    jyg 

minister  on  a  horse  which  he  had  borrowed  of  the 
Roman  CathoHc  priest.  The  skepticism  which  he 
sought  to  cure  in  others  he  had  known  within  him- 
self; "  all  sorts  of  skeptical  and  doubtful  thoughts  on 
the  great  points  of  religion  he  said,  having  not  only 
passed  through  his  head,  but  stuck  fast  and  jjainfully 
in  his  mind,  till  the  mercy  of  the  Lord  dispelled 
them."  And  so  his  direction  to  other  souls  was 
just  this,  "Wait  patiently  on  the  Lord,  and  hope 
in  him,  for  you  shall  yet  praise  him  for  the  helj)  of 
his  countenance.  That  alone  can  enlighten  you, 
and  calm  the  storms  that  are  raised  within  it.  In 
the  midst  of  these  assaults,  throw  yourself  down  at 
his  footstool,  and  cry,  "  O  God,  Father  of  mercies, 
save  me  from  this  heU  within  me !  I  acknowledge, 
I  adore,  I  bless  Thee,  whose  throne  is  in  heaven, 
with  Thy  blessed  Son  and  crucified  Jesus,  and  Thy 
Holy  Spirit,  and  though  Thou  slay  me,  yet  wiU  I 
trust  in  Thee." 


j8o     God's  Timepiece  for  Man's  Eternity. 


XLYII. 

THE  POSSIBLE  SPOILING  OF  A  PREACHER  BY  PHILOS- 
OPHY—SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT  AND  POWER  VIN- 
DICATED AS  GOD'S  ONLY  —  INDEPENDENCE  ONLY 
BY   FAITH   AND   SUBMISSION. 

There  is  no  possibility  of  independence,  or  any  true 
method  of  science  in  man,  or  security  against  error, 
"without  dependence  on  God,  the  Creator  of  man  and 
of  science,  and  of  man's  relations  to  Himself  and  to 
all  knowledge.  Measuring  themselves  by  themselves, 
and  comparing  themselves  among  themselves  men 
must  forever  remain  mere  imitators  of  one  another's 
mistakes;  relying  on  human  authority,  yet  denying 
universal  experience  of  guUt  and  ruin  as  a  hbel,  and 
individual  experience  of  regeneration  and  spiritual 
life  as  fanaticism.  So  have  men  used  the  "Word  of 
God  rather  as  an  external  lamp  contrived,  than  an 
inward  fountain  of  holy  consciousness  and  joy;  and 
so  have  come  weakness,  and  suj)erstitions,  and  fears, 
and  the  mere  belief  of  the  devils,  who  tremble,  in- 
stead of  the  freedom  and  fearlessness  of  the  sons  of 
God.     For  nothing  tends  so  much  to  produce  a  man- 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    j8i 

ly  independence,  confidence,  and  genuine  liberty  of 
thought  and  feehng,  as  a  simple  reliance  on  God's 
Word,  and  an  unconditional  submission  to  it.  "Let 
them  destroy  my  works,"  said  Luther;  "I  desire  noth- 
ing better;  for  aR  I  wanted  was  to  lead  Christians  to 
the  Bible,  that  they  might  afterwards  throw  away  my 
writings.  Great  God!  if  we  had  but  a  right  under- 
standing of  the  Holy  Scrijjtures,  what  need  would 
there  be  of  my  books  ?  "  God  has  provided  for  us 
this  divine  independence  of  all  human  authority; 
"not  in  word  only,  but  in  power,  and  in  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  in  much  assurance." 

But  assurance  is  a  thing  which  can  not  be  got  from 
other  minds,  any  more  than  the  power  of  sight  can 
be  got  fi'om  spectacles.  There  must  be  the  seeing 
eye,  before  any  spectacles  can  help  it.  There  are 
schools  and  plu-ases  of  philosophy,  as  well  as  religion, 
to  which  a  man  may  be  in  bondage,  and  the  power 
of  the  pulpit  may  be  greatly  hindered  or  dimin- 
ished in  that  way.  "Beware  lest  any  man  spoil 
you  through  philosophy  and  vain  deceit,  after  the  tra- 
ditions'of  men,  after  the  rudiments  of  the  world,  and 
not  after  Christ."  Schools  may  spoil  you,  if  phi- 
losophy and  the  traditions  of  men  are  taught  in  them, 
rather  than  the  Word  of  God  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 
Philosophic  views  of  the  spiritual  life  itself,  as  organic 


j82     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

and  successional  in  and  through  a  visible  organization, 
indestructible  even  by  the  most  radical  corruption  and 
apostasy,  so  as  to  embrace  even  the  Church  of  Rome  as 
an  appointed  and  legitimate  development  of  that  life; 
inspiring  on  the  one  side  a  false  and  most  immoral 
liberahty,  and  on  the  other  a  presumptuous  and  im- 
moral exclusiveness;  such  views  prevent  the  develop- 
ment of  power.  That  which  is  successional  is  de- 
pravity, rooting  us  in  the  race,  in  the  wHd  olive  tree, 
out  of  which  grace  cuts  us,  and  grafts  us  into  Christ; 
grace,  which  comes  not  by  organic  succession,  but 
constant  divine  interposition  and  new  creation.  Sec- 
ond causes  multij)lied  in  sj)iritual  things  cut  us  off 
from  God,  and  fi'om  the  belief  and  experience  of 
divine  power;  and  the  Church,  in  some  systems  of 
spiritual  philosophy,  is  a  vast  second  cause,  endued 
with  divine  attributes,  and  preventing  direct  access  to 
God,  almost  as  fatally  as  the  "  practical  eternity "  of  a 
succession  of  eras  and  causes  without  God's  inter- 
vention, in  the  scientific  philosophy  of  an  atheistic 
evolution. 

Philosophic  views  of  penalty,  as  bringing  all  creat- 
ures at  length  into  the  bosom  of  God;  philosophic 
views  of  the  divine  attributes,  tending  to  pantheism; 
philosophic  views  of  faith,  disconnecting  it  from  God's 
truth,  which  is  its  only  legitimate  foundation;  philo- 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    j8^ 

sophic  views  of  history,  exalting  it  to  such  a  position 
as  to  make  the  authority  of  God's  Word  dependent 
upon  it;  the  very  vagueness,  doubtfulness  and  subtlety 
of  philosophic  views  or  speculations  generally; — all  this 
may  just  leaven  a  man's  theology  so  far  as  to  spoil  it, 
render  it  unfit  for  use,  dej)rive  it  of  regenerating  effi- 
cacy, and  render  power  in  the  pulpit  impossible. 
Some  of  the  most  approved  German  writers  are  illus- 
trations of  theology  so  spoiled.  In  the  system  of 
Nitzsch,  for  example,  much  applauded  for  its  ortho- 
doxy, and  philosophic  exactness,  it  is  maintained  that 
as  to  logical  position,  by  the  letter,  the  tenet  of  abso- 
lute, positive,  eternal  punishment  is  undeniable,  but 
as  to  reality,  irreconcilable  ivith  the  philosophy  of  the  di- 
vine nature,  and  therefore  impossible.  The  logical  let- 
ter is  a  falsehood;  the  spiritual  truth  is  that  of  final 
universal  salvation.  There  can  be  no  such  thing  as 
power  in  the  pulpit,  in  proportion  as  such  views  have 
place  in  the  preacher. 

Again  there  is  the  paralytic  weakness  and  bondage 
attached  to  low  and  uncertain  views  of  divine  in- 
spiration. Here  is  a  great  secret  of  rottenness  and 
feebleness.  Every  reader  of  history  remembers  the 
anecdote  of  Mirabeau's  impression  on  first  hearing 
Robespierre,  then  an  unknown  young  man,  speak  in 
convention.     "That   young    man   will   yet  be  heard 


384     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

from;  he  will  make  himself  known  and  felt,  for  he 
believes  every  word  he  says."  The  very  opposite  im- 
pression will  be  made  by  the  pulj)it- orator  unless  ho 
is  profovmdly  grounded  in  an  impregnable  experi- 
mental assurance  of  the  Scrij)tures  as  the  Word  of 
God.  But  an  assured  and  steadfast  faith  in  the  Word 
of  God  is  the  gift  of  God's  own  Spirit.  Consequently, 
it  depends  on  the  degree  of  earnestness  with  which 
the  preacher  himseK  seeks  God.  If,  day  and  night 
he  follows  hard  after  God,  if  he  makes  it  his  delight 
to  find  Him  and  commune  with  Him,  if  he  supphcates 
like  Moses,  "I  beseech  thee,  O  Lord,  show  me  Thy 
glory,"  then  will  God  shine  into  his  heart  to  give  him 
the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the 
face  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  will  give  him  that  glorious 
ministration  of  the  Spirit  which  exceeds  in  glory, 
that  revelation  by  the  Sj^irit  searching  the  deep 
things  of  God,  that  Spirit  of  wisdom  and  revela- 
tion in  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  and  that  earnest  of 
the  Spirit  in  the  heart,  which  makes  the  Word  a  vivid 
flame,  a  burning  Hfe,  an  irresistible  exj)erience,  a  fire 
infolding  itself,  an  electric  light  penetrating  the  whole 
being.  God  causes  those  who  sow  in  tears  to  reap  in 
joy;  He  gives  the  latter  rain  to  those  who  avail  them- 
selves of  the  early;  and  so  He  blesses  the  springing 
of  His  own  seed  unto  life  everlasting. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    j8^ 

The  knowledge  and  assurance  of  a  divine  inspira- 
tion are  not  to  be  gained  bj  study  in  the  schools,  not 
even  on  the  highest  theoiy,  but  only  from  G-od  Him- 
self, only  from  the  same  Spii'it,  by  whom  the  Word  of 
God  is  itself  truly  inspired.  This  power  belongeth 
unto  God.  Archbishop  Usher,  with  his  boundless 
learning,  before  the  modern  German  exegeiea  began 
their  studies,  wrote  out,  with  a  piety  like  Paul's,  a 
profound  logical  and  holy  demonstration  of  our  de- 
pendence on  the  witness  of  the  Spu-it.  That  witness 
was  the  secret  of  his  own  power,  as  it  was  of  Bengel's. 
If  men  throw  themselves  on  the  knowledge  and  as- 
surance of  the  schools,  it  fails  them,  as  when  in  a  crit- 
ical moment  a  revolver  misses  fire;  it  fails  them  as 
power,  for  God  vindicates  that  for  Himself  alone;  and 
"  cursed  be  the  man  who  trusteth  in  man,  and  maketh 
flesh  his  arm,  and  whose  heart  departeth  from  the 
Lord; "  he  shall  be,  and  his  proofs  shall  be,  like  the 
heath  in  the  desert,  like  the  parched  places  in  the  wil- 
derness, like  salt  and  ashes  instead  of  verdure.  AU 
the  arguments  may  seem  to  be  the  same,  but  the  life, 
the  power,  the  assurance  of  the  Holy  Ghost  are  want- 
ing, and  under  the  firmest  creed  thei'e  will  be  falter- 
ing and  doubt.  When  the  schools  of  the  prophets, 
and  all  the  apparatus  of  their  colleges,  were  multi- 
plied in  Israel,  then  false  prophets  were  multiplied, 
men  educated,   but  not  baptized,  heirs  at  law,  but 


jS6     God's  Timepiece  for  Mail  s  Eternity. 

not  at  equity,  graduates  at  the  schools,  but  not  com- 
missioned of  the  Lord  Almighty. 

But  how  much  more,  if  the  theory  itself  be  based 
on  doubt  instead  of  certainty.  There  may  be  such 
theories  of  inspu^ation  as  inspii'e  nothing  but  anxiety 
and  unbelief;  theories  so  discrediting  and  question- 
ing, so  dishonoring  to  God,  His  Word,  and  His  Spirit, 
that  the  experience  of  divine  power  is  rendered  im- 
possible. If  a  student  has  been  so  unfortunate  as  to 
come  into  the  ministry  under  such  a  discipline,  he 
comes  as  one  with  a  palsy;  he  comes  distrustful  and 
afraid,  inexperienced  and  ashamed;  he  can  not  devel- 
op power,  for  he  does  not  feel  it,  does  not  believe  it. 

If  a  man  is  doubtful  about  a  bill,  a  draft,  a  signa- 
ture, he  can  not  use  it  with  confidence;  other  people 
will  not  take  it,  but  with  a  private  mark  to  return  it; 
commercial  operations  can  not  go  on.  If  a  physician 
is  doubtful  about  a  medicine,  whether,  for  example,  it 
be  quinine  or  oak-bark,  and  the  patient  too  is  doubt- 
ful, little  good  will  the  prescription  accomphsh,  for 
there  will  not  be  the  jDower,  even  if  the  medicine  be 
genuine;  so  much  does  even  nature  depend  for  the 
efficacy  of  her  real  causes  upon  faith.  But  how  much 
more  the  divine  nature,  that  operates  only  by  faith, 
new-creates  by  faith,  produces  the  experience  of  life 
by  faith. 

The  Word  of  God  is  self-dependent,  containing  all 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    j8y 

things  necessary  for  its  proof,  confii-mation,  and  en- 
ergy, within  itself,  by  virtue  of  the  inseparable  pres- 
ence and  life  of  the  Divine  Spirit;  and  so  completely 
independent  of  all  history,  aU  human  testimony,  that 
if  all  such  were  annihilated,  aU  the  books  and  records 
containing  it  burned,  the  Word  of  God  by  the  Spirit 
of  God  would  have  the  same  power  as  ever. 

And  yet,  there  is  nothing  that  in  and  by  history 
has  more  perfect  infrangible  proof,  accumulated  and 
germinating  forever.  But  that  proof  alone  a  man 
can  not  stand  upon,  for  with  aU  its  perfection,  human 
testimony  alone  by  itself  has  the  quality  of  a  lie;  let 
God  be  true,  but  every  man  a  liar.  Every  preacher 
is  bound  to  know  and  jDossess  the  i>ower  of  God  by 
the  Spirit  of  God,  and  to  depend  on  His  Sj>irit  and 
not  on  man;  then  and  thus  only  will  he  know  how  to 
apj)ly  human  testimony  in  its  proper  place,  and  how 
to  appreciate  the  combination  between  human  and 
divine.  The  human  testimony  to  which  Clu'ist  refers 
as  true  ceases  to  be  fallible,  and  by  His  endorsement 
becomes  divine.  Just  as  His  own  incarnation,  consti- 
tuted a  fleshly  tabernacle  as  divine  and  incorruptible 
as  His  own  divine  Spirit  from  eternity,  so  the  words 
sanctioned  and  employed  by  His  Sphit  become  them- 
selves Spirit  and  life;  infaUible,  incorruptible,  divine. 
The  personality  of  Christ  carries  every  behever,  as  it 
did  the  thief  upon  the  cross,  and  Paul  the  persecutor. 


^88     God's  Timepiece  for  Ma7is  Eternity. 

From  Genesis  to  the  ApocaljiDse  we  know  whom, 
and  therefore  what  we  have  beUeved.  "Whom,  not 
having  seen,  we  love,  and  in  whom  though  now  we 
see  Him  not,  yet  believing  we  rejoice  with  joy  un- 
speakable and  full  of  glory,  receiving  the  end  of 
our  faith,  the  salvation  of  the  soul." — I  Pet.  i.,  8,  9. 
Of  which  salvation  the  old  prophets  and  reasoners 
in  the  face  of  death  inquired  and  searched  diUgently; 
kept,  like  oui'selves,  by  the  power  of  God  through 
faith  unto  salvation,  7'eady  to  be  revealed,  through  a 
Saviour,  7'eady  to  appear,  yet  neither  of  them  among 
the  things  then  visible,  but  ministered  through  them 
to  futui'e  ages,  as  a  grace  to  be  hoped  for  at  the 
revelation  of  Jesus  Christ;  and  meantime  the  hope 
itseK  to  be  acted  ujoon  and  acted  out  in  holy  fear, 
prayer,  and  conversation,  obeying  the  truth  through 
the  SiDii'it,  for  the  regeneration  of  the  whole  world. 
Such  is  the  sanctifying  faith  created  and  sustained 
by  these  gosjDels  and  epistles. 

They  carry  such  a  charm  of  deep  sincerity,  such 
profound  sense  of  integrity  and  truth,  such  disinter- 
estedness, such  uninterrui^ted  and  uncorrupt  ap- 
peals to  the  highest  motives  of  gratitude  and  love; 
there  is  such  undisguised  absence  of  all  offers  or 
promises  of  gain  in  this  world;  such  assurance,  on 
the  contrary,  of  loss,  affliction,  tribulation;  such  de- 
lighted  and   grateful   recognition   of    obedience   and 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Maris  Eternity.    j8g 

faith  in  others;  such  gratitude  for  kindnesses  re- 
ceived; such  fervor  of  the  spirit  of  "beneficence,  for- 
giveness, charity;  such  lowHness,  poverty,  self-re- 
straint and  self-denial  out  of  love;  such  freedom 
from  asceticism,  superstition,  formalism,  spiritual  des- 
potism, severity  and  cruelty;  such  communion  both 
of  joys  and  sorrows;  such  consolations  imparted  and 
shared;  such  compassion  for  them  that  are  wander- 
ing; such  an  earnest  imitation  of  Christ  in  all  points 
possible  on  earth;  such  a  constant  thoughtfulness  and 
beholding  of  His  love  and  care  and  glory  in  heaven; 
such  entireness  and  supremacy  of  Hving  for  Him,  yet 
not  as  penance  or  painful  duty,  but  by  sweet  and 
cheerful  constraint  of  grateful  love;  such  artlessness 
in  the  narratives;  such  entire  absence  of  the  con- 
sciousness or  vanity  of  authorship,  or  seeking  of  the 
praises  of  men.  It  is  unaccountable  by  any  thing  but 
a  divine  insj^iration.  It  is  the  work  of  nothing  less 
than  an  inspiration  infallible,  and  a  sanctification  that 
could  come  only  from  the  Spu-it  of  God. 

And  still  we  might  go  on  with  a  volume  of  the 
characteristics  of  saints,  and  challenge  any  one  to 
add  a  vii'tue  or  proof  of  divine  goodness  which  is 
not  plainly  manifest,  or  to  mention  any  thing  omitted; 
yet  all  manifested  unconsciously,  unintentionally,  as 
the  lilies  of  the  field  grow  and  blossom.  Fulfilling 
constantly,   as  never  before  or   since,  the   command 


jpo     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity 


of  the  Lord  Jesus,  Let  your  light  so  shine  before 
men,  that  they  may  see  your  good  works,  not  j^ou, 
and  may  glorify,  not  yourselves,  but  your  Father 
in  heaven,  being  drawn  to  Him  by  love,  and  in- 
spired by  Him,  and  endowed  by  Him,  the  Author 
and  Giver  of  all  this  light  and  glory. 

The  evolution  of  such  a  book  of  narratives  and 
letters,  such  reasoninsfs  of  divine  logic  and  truth, 
ffoTin  the  sole  premises  of  love,  is  more  than  human, 
is  beyond  all  the  possibilities  of  the  natural  man. 
It  is  infallible  omniscient  wisdom  and  love,  working, 
patient,  long-suffering,  immutable,  through  vast  and 
varied  dispensations,  interruptions,  rebellions,  per- 
versions, idolatries,  and  fathomless  gulfs  of  depravity; 
an  unceasing  system  of  instruction,  education,  and 
pardoning  mercy,  from  Adam  to  Christ,  the  same, 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  forevei*. 

Now  at  every  stage  of  this  wondrous  body  and 
growth  of  divine  revelation  it  was  absolutely  impos- 
sible for  any  forger  to  have  understood  what  went 
before,  or  imagined  or  contrived  an  after-piece  cor- 
resj^onding.  Stand  at  the  closure  of  the  book  of  Mal- 
achi,  and  gaze  into  the  gvdf  of  the  future  four  hun- 
dred years.  It  is  impossible  for  human  power, 
wisdom,  wit,  prescience,  to  invent  or  imagine  the 
beginning  of  the  gospels,  or  the  incarnation  and 
life  of  Christ. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    ^gi 

Stand  at  the  close  of  the  gosj)els,  those  simple 
exclusive  portraitures  of  the  divine  Saviour  of  our 
race,  His  mercy  and  love,  His  words  and  mii-acles, 
His  sufferings  and  death.  It  is  impossible  for  the 
human  mind  to  imagine  or  invent  from  these  bio- 
graphic data,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  from  the 
Pentecostal  miracle  of  tongues  to  the  conversion  of 
Saul  and  the  establishment  and  visitation  of  the 
churches,  ending  with  Paul  in  his  own  hired  house 
preaching  freely  in  Rome. 

Stand  at  the  last  trace  of  intelligence  in  the  book 
of  the  Acts,  and  again  it  is  absolutely  hnpossible  for 
any  man  to  contrive  the  Epistles; — the  chain  of  doc- 
trine, fruits,  practice,  development,  interpretation;  the 
divine  hghts  thrown  back  from  regenerated  lives  over 
all  past  revelation,  and  forward  tiU  this  mortal  shall 
have  put  on  immortahty. 

And  once  more,  stand  at  the  close  of  the  Epistles, 
at  the  ascription  of  Jude,  "To  the  only  wise  God 
our  Saviour,"  and  look  forth  into  the  untried  eternity, 
the  field  of  all  prophecy  in  fulfilment.  It  is  impos- 
sible for  any  human  being,  any  forger,  any  unin- 
spired soul,  of  that  age  or  of  any  age,  to  imagine 
or  contrive  such  an  Apocalypse  from  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  on  the  throne  of  the  Almighty.  Su.ch  an 
opening  of  the  future,  and  of  heaven  and  hell,  with 
such  startling  supernatural  disclosures,  such  an  aurora 


^g2     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity, 


over  the  whole  heavens  of  embattled  squadrons  of 
flame  and  lightning  and  thunder,  and  yet  not  a  con- 
tradiction nor  incongruity  of  thought  or  words,  but 
a  j)erfect  symmetry  and  fulfilment  of  all  previous 
seeds  of  thought  and  proj)hecy.  More  impossible 
than  for  a  man  contemjjlating  a  seed  which  had 
been  discovered  in  an  Egyptian  mummy  three  thou- 
sand years  ago,  to  desci'ibe  what  would  grow  out  of 
it  in  the  coming  spring  resurrection,  to  tell  before- 
hand its  form  and  development,  whether  a  tree  or 
a  vegetable,  a  flower  or  a  cedar  of  Lebanon,  a  lily 
of  the  valley,  or  a  California  Gigantea,  five  htmdred 
feet  high. 


XL  VIII. 

THE  IMPOSSIBILITY  OF  A  PRECONCERTED  FORGERY 
—BUT  IF  INCREDIBLE  BEFOREHAND,  ITS  SUCCESS 
YET  MORE  IMPOSSIBLE  — A  VERBAL  INSPIRATION 
NO  MORE  IMPROBABLE  THAN  A  SPECIAL  PROVI- 
DENCE. 

The  supposition  of  a  Corhss  steam-engine  contrived 
with  all  its  parts,  provisions,  steam-chests,  cylinders, 
motors,  condensers,  shafts,  safety-valves,  ages  before 
the  force  of  steam  was  ever  known,  by  pre-existent 
savages  before   they   had   learned   to   talk   one  with 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    jgj 

another  by  imitation  of  the  cries  of  brutes,  would 
be  a  probability  of  common  sense,  worthy  of  be- 
ing beheved  and  acted  on,  in  comparison  with  the 
supposition  of  an  uninspired  human  being  first  im- 
agining the  story  of  the  creation,  temptation,  and  fall 
of  Adam  and  his  posterity,  and  then,  out  of  these  im- 
agined elements,  contriving  the  forgery  of  a  Divine 
Revelation,  with  disclosure  of  the  plan,  possibility, 
mystery,  and  history  of  the  redemption  and  regen- 
eration of  mankind,  by  a  Saviour  to  come. 

But  if  the  forgery,  with  its  predictions  and  its 
planted  seeds  of  spiritual  thought  and  promise  for 
faith,  were  deemed  an  incredible  performance,  what 
shall  be  said  of  its  success  by  the  fulfilment  of  those 
predictions  demonstrating  its  truth  by  successive  de- 
velopments through  the  march  of  centuries,  succes- 
sive minds  and  events  through  intervals  of  distant 
ages  entering  into,  and  setting  at  work,  and  enlarging 
the  fictitious  scheme  of  the  world's  regeneration  from 
sin  and  misery?  By  the  supposition  of  its  being  a 
forgery,  not  one  of  the  successive  unconscious  agents 
of  this  vast  engine  of  intricate  spiritual  machinery 
could  ever  have  had  a  conception  or  belief  of  that 
supernatural  and  new-creatuig  design  in  the  execu- 
tion of  which  it  is  in  reality  employed,  and  by  force 
of  which  it  does  in  reahty  change  and  govern  human 
societv. 


jp^     Gocfs  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

So  that  we  have  such  a  forgery  performing  for 
thousands  of  years  the  actual  spiritual  work,  which 
the  very  accusation  of  forgery  against  the  books  of 
the  Bible  denies  ever  to  have  been  designed  or  con- 
templated in  them;  and  if  the  contrivers  of  those 
books  were  forgers,  a^  accused,  then  they  never  coiJd 
themselves  have  intended,  much  less  beheved,  such 
a  divine  result. 

And  now  the  ideas  of  a  Personal  Creator,  Lawgiver, 
and  Providential  Governor,  and  of  sin,  and  conse- 
quent eternal  death,  and  of  an  Incarnate  Divine 
Saviour,  made  known  by  inspired  Scriptiu-e  are 
presented  by  Herbert  Spencer's  "Fu'st  Principles," 
as  a  vast  compound  lie,  ordained  to  be  excogitated 
by  the  human  reason  as  a  sheathe  for  necessary  truths 
otherwise  impossible  to  he  fastened  on  the  human  intellect ! 
And  aU  this,  the  foundation  of  a  system  of  "  sociologi- 
cal secularism,"  to  be  taught  in  our  common  schools 
and  colleges,  for  the  perfect  infallible  guidance  of  a 
race  of  future  angels ! 

These  philosophers  and  higher  critics,  rejecting  the 
argument  from  design,  and  a  plenary  authoritative 
inspiration  as  incredible,  propose  for  our  belief  a 
deity  of  Natural  Selection  and  scientific  experiment- 
alism  and  evolution,  clothed  with  the  authority  of 
"Nature's  pluck,"  and  designing,  contriving,  and  ex- 
perimenting for  millions  of  years  the  construction  of 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    ^95 

a  human  eye  for  the  use  of  the  human  being,  before 
the  frame,  organization,  or  actual  existence  of  that 
being  shall  have  been  imagined,  or  the  possibility  of 
language  or  of  sight  provided  for ! 

A  pre-existing  race  of  men  before  Adam  is  also 
postulated,  for  hundreds  of  thousands  of  years  left 
without  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  therefore  cer- 
tainly without  any  claim  ever  made  by  Him,  of  hav- 
ing been  their  Creator,  and  without  any  provision 
for  those  spiritual  wants,  which  alone  can  pronounce 
the  man  a  man,  in  any  way  different  from  the  brutes, 
or  his  organization  a  fit  temj)le  for  the  incarnation 
of  the  Son  of  God  ! 

An  evolution  from  the  monkey  is  proposed  as  an 
escape  from  the  difficulties  of  the  Creative  Genesis, 
and  an  insurance  against  the  consequences  of  our  yet 
possibly  finding  a  fossil  man  just  in  the  attitude  of 
emerging  from  the  likeness  of  his  Simian  parentage ! 
If  any  future  age  should  discover  such  a  hirth-process 
engraven  in  the  rocks,  what  in  the  name  of  truth 
could  men  do  with  the  book  of  Genesis  or  the  theory 
of  an  infaUible  insj)iration  ?  Let  us  have  mercy  upon 
our  posterity  beforehand,  and  not  expose  them  to  the 
hazard  of  such  a  shipwreck  of  theh'  faith  as  must 
ensue  if  they  ever  discover  the  missing  link  between 
the  man  and  his  monkey  anteriors. 

A  verbal  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  is  no  more 


^g6     God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity. 

improbable,  nor  beset  with  difficulties,  if  a  divine  rev- 
elation be  admitted  at  all,  than  the  particular  provi- 
dence of  a  Creator  and  Father,  overruling  all  things, 
according  to  His  own  foreknowledge  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world.  Far  greater  objections  may  be 
urged  against  the  particular  providence,  than  ever 
have  been  against  the  particular  inspiration.  The 
two  things  are  probable  by  science  itself,  examin- 
ing the  biu-ied  strata  by  which  the  construction  of 
a  world  is  proved.  It  is  not  denied  that  the  print 
marks  of  a  rain-storm  may  be  detected  on  the  sands 
of  an  antediluvian  ocean.  To-day  we  may  examine 
and  test  the  proof-sheets  of  photographic  impressions 
of  the  form  and  motions  of  animals  engraven  with  the 
rapidity  of  lightning.  We  may  do  the  same  with 
reminiscences  of  scenes,  transactions,  and  words  for- 
ever gone,  yet  capable  of  being  renewed  with  in- 
finite exactness,  even  as  God  Himself  is  said  to  re- 
quire that  which  is  past.  The  shadow  of  a  humming 
bird  flying  between  oneself  and  the  sun  could  not  be 
lighter,  swifter,  more  evanescent  than  idle  thoughts 
and  words;  yet  they  are  engraven  on  the  mind;  a 
passing  cloud  could  not  change  more  silently;  yet 
there  is  the  image,  its  word,  its  lesson.  As  the  vision 
of  Eliphaz  the  Temanite,  a  spirit  j^assed  before  my 
face;  it  stood  stiU,  but  I  could  not  discern  the  form 
thereof;  an  image  before   mine   eyes,  silence,  and  a 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    jgj 

voice,  a  still  small  voice.  It  is  gone,  but  it  is  a  pres- 
ence forevei'.  Shall  mortal  man  be  more  just  than 
God?     Shall  a  man  be  more  pure  than  his  Maker? 

Is  any  right  conception  of  truth  or  duty  possible, 
that  is  not  first  of  all  and  above  all,  responsible  to  the 
Author  of  truth,  and  of  our  own  being  and  immor- 
tality ?  We  are  treated  from  time  to  time  to  critical 
speculations,  assuming  a  disinterestedness  in  the  pur- 
suit of  truth,  higher  and  more  divine  than  that  of 
Christ  our  Saviour — ^just  as  if,  indeed,  the  search  after 
truth  made  us  superior  to  the  fear  of  God  Himself, 
because  Science  has  not  yet  demonstrated  through 
Sense  to  Eeason  that  there  is  a  Supreme  personal 
Creator  and  Governor  of  the  universe.  Our  respon- 
sibility and  duty,  in  the  province  of  education  (vye 
are  told,  in  certain  quarters),  is  therefore  fird  to 
Truth,  not  to  Christianity. 

If  Christianity  be  indeed  the  truth,  it  is  the  divine 
fountain  of  all  truth,  the  highest  heaven  of  science; 
and  all  scientific  truth  is  only  the  servant  of  Christ 
its  Author;  and  all  discoveries  of  science  are  only 
Christ's  Supreme  Providence,  as  Head  over  all  things 
unto  the  Church,  which  is  His  body.  His  spiritual 
kingdom,  the  fulness  of  Him  who  filleth  all  in  all. 

But  if  Christianity  were  not  true,  then  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  truth,  no  moral  nor  spiritual  reality,  nor 
kingdom,  nor  fact,  nor  any  responsibihty  either  to 


^g8     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

God  or  natural  law,  which  is  only  evolution  from  a 
"practical  eternity,  without  Creator,  Lawgiver,  Gov- 
ernor, or  design."  We  are  thus  plunged  in  a  bound- 
less chaos,  such  as  neither  Lucretius  nor  Democritus 
ever  in  the  gloom  of  paganism  imagined. 

Pilate  himself,  when  scourging  and  crucifying  Christ, 
asked  Him  to  His  face.  What  is  truth  ?  As  if  he  had 
affirmed,  "  That  is  my  sole  object.  My  obligations 
are  to  Truth,  not  to  Christianity,  nor  to  the  Jew- 
ish Scriptures,  nor  to  any  God  proclaimed  by  any 
thing  written  in  them;  but  to  whatever  truth,  at  what- 
ever cost,  a  scientific  investigation  by  the  senses  may 
discover.  I  crucify  the  pretence  of  an  infallible  in- 
sjDiration  in  the  Scriptures,  for  the  sake  of  Truth; 
making  myself  heroically  naked  of  aU  prepossession 
in  its  favor,  that  I  may  wrestle  with  it,  regardless  of 
consequences.  I  abjure  aU  justification  by  faith,  even 
in  God,  and  admit  nothing  on  authority  even  of  God's 
assertion,  but  go  by  fact  made  known  by  mine  own 
Benses." 

Had  Prof.  Huxley  been  there,  he  might  have  said 
to  Pilate,  "If  thou  have  the  courage  to  stand  alone, 
face  to  face  with  the  abyss  of  the  Eternal  and  Un- 
knowable, be  thou  content,  once  for  all,  not  only  to 
renounce  the  good  things  promised  by  infaUibihty, 
but  even  to  bear  the  bad  things  which  it  jjrophesies; 
content  to  follow  reason  and  fact  in  singleness  and 


God's  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity,    jgg 

Jionesty  of  purpose,  wherever  they  may  lead,  in  the 
sure  faith  that  a  hell  of  honest  men  will  be  to 
them  more  endurable  than  a  paradise  full  of  angehc 
shams."*  Is  this  a  suitable  language  even  for  what 
is  called  natural  piety?  Is  it  not  rather  the  most 
transparent  pride,  whUe  a  Divine  Creator  is  denied 
and  the  word  of  His  inspiration  ridiculed? 


XLIX. 

THE  FINAL  ARGUMENT,  AND  ITS  PERFECTION— ILLUS- 
TRATION FROM  THE  VISION  AND  INSPIRATION  OF 
THE  WORD  OF  THE  LORD  UNTO  EZEKIEL. 

"He  was  clothed  in  a  vedure  dipped  in  blood,  and  His 
name  is  called  The  Wokd  of  God:  a  name  weitten, 
that  no  man  knew  but  He  Himself:  King  of  kings  and 
LoKD  of  lords." — Rev.  xix.  11,  12,  16.  This  answers 
to  the  announcement  of  Christ  in  John  xiv.  6.  "I 
am  the  way,  the  truth,  the  life:  no  man  cometh  to 
the  Father  but  by  Me."  It  is  that  testimony  of  Jesus 
which  is  the  sph'it  of  prophecy:  by  which  heaven  is 
opened,  and  He  that  is  called  faithful  and  true 
judgeth  in  righteousness. — Rev.  xix.  10,  11. 

Here  we  discover  an  analogy,  vast  and  indisputa- 
ble, between  the  divine  and  human  personality  of 
Christ,  made  flesh  and  dwelling  among  us,  and  the 

*  Huxley's  "Critiques  and  Addresses,"  p.  240. 


400     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

divine    and    hiiman    personality    of    the    Word,    the 
Scriptures  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  'ta6a  ypa.<pri 

OEOTCravdro?,  CLOTHED  EST  A  VESTUKE  DIPPED  IN  BLOOD,  and 

conversing  with  us,  as  we  converse  one  with  another, 
but  with  absolute  infallible  truth.  The  infallible  per- 
fect inspiration  of  the  whole  Word  of  God,  in  aU  its 
parts,  is  as  sure  to  human  reason  as  the  central  truth 
of  the  incarnation,  without  which  the  whole  moral 
universe,  and  the  proofs  of  God  in  it,  fall  asunder. 
Every  step  in  that  incarnation,  every  crepusculum  of 
its  dawning,  every  new  shaft  of  hght,  every  increase 
of  divine  revelation  looking  towards  it,  was  a  ministry 
of  glory  instrumental  even  in  the  jDrocess  of  condem- 
nation, to  the  manifestation  jpredicted  in  Romans  viiL 
18-23,  and  Eph.  iii.  9-11,  and  iv.  7-16,  and  i.  17-23; 
a  manifestation  of  boundless  glory  and  power,  till 
this  mortal  should  put  on  Christ's  immortality,  and 
death  be  swallowed  up  in  victory.  And  aU  things 
after,  as  well  as  before  the  annunciation  of  this  mys- 
teiy  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  the  mother  of  our  Lord; — 
the  babe  in  the  manger,  the  miracles,  the  tempta- 
tion, the  voices  of  God  and  of  Christ,  the  baptisms 
of  blood,  the  cross,  the  forsaking  of  the  Father,  the 
forgiving  parables  and  prayers,  the  salvation  of  the 
dying  thief,  the  resurrection,  ascension,  Pentecost, 
and  all  the  following  presences  of  Christ  in  His  gos- 
pel throughout  the  world  ("  Lo,  I  am  with  you  always 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    401 

even  unto  the  end  of  the  world  "),  have  been  only  sue 
cessive  manifestations  and  v^orkings  of  the  omnis- 
cience and  omnipotence  of  that  incarnate  incompre- 
hensible love,  by  which,  through  Christ  dwelling  in 
our  hearts  by  faith,  we  begin  to  comprehend  that 
which  passeth  knowledge,  and  are  prepared  to  be 
filled  with  all  the  fulness  of  God.  "  For  God,  who 
commanded  the  hght  to  shine  out  of  darkness  hath 
shined  in  our  hearts,  to  give  the  Hght  of  the  knowledge 
of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ." — II 
Cor.  iv.  6.  "The  Son  of  God  was  not  yea  and  nay, 
but  in  Him  was  yea." — II  Cor.  i.  19,  20.  An  infallible 
inspiration  may  be  demonstrated  from  the  first  six 
chapters  of  this  Epistle  of  Paul  to  the  Corinthians. 
These  things  saith  the  Son  of  God,  who  searcheth 
the  reins  and  the  hearts. 

What  train  now,  for  the  completeness  of  our  argu- 
ment, in  tracing  the  inspiration,  divine  life  and  §,u- 
thority  of  the  Scriptures  can  we  pursue,  other  than 
this  very  hne  of  light,  flashing  from  the  indisputable 
revealed  fact  of  the  divine-hunian,  human-divine  ?  This 
mystery  of  the  Root  and  Offspring  of  David  in  one 
person,  is  "  the  Key  of  David,  that  openeth  and  no  man 
shutteth,  and  shutteth  and  no  man  openeth:" — Revela- 
tion iii.  7. 

Comparing  Isa.  vi.  1-8  with  John  xii.  37-41,  and 
the    first   and    tenth   chapters   of   Ezekiel,   we    have 


4-02     God's  Timepiece  for  Mafis  Eternity. 

a  demonstration  of  the  human  and  divine  in  one,  and 
a  vivid  illustration  by  the  prophetic  imagery. 

We  permit  ourselves  to  be  taken  up,  as  it  were, 
into  the  chariot  of  Christ's  deity,  and  to  observe  how 
the  truth  is  shot  from  the  wheels,  full  of  eyes,  and 
from  the  living  creatures,  and  from  the  spirit  of  the 
LIVING  CREATURES  in  the  wheels.  For  Ezekiel's  vision, 
in  the  first  chapter  of  his  prophecy,  is  a  sublime  and 
graphic  description  of  the  Word  of  God,  as  at  once  the 
abode,  vehicle,  and  manifestation  of  the  divine  glory. 

When  the  hving  creatures  moved,  the  noise  of  their 
wings  was  like  the  noise  of  great  waters,  as  the  voice 
OF  THE  Almighty,  the  voice  of  speech,  as  the  noise  of 
an  host.  And  there  was  the  form  of  a  man's  hand 
under  their  wings,  and  the  Hving  creatures  had  the 
Hkeness  of  a  man,  and  above  the  firmament  which 
was  over  their  heads,  the  likeness  of  a  throne,  and 
on  the  throne  the  apj)earance  of  a  man  above  it,  and 
a  rainbow  round  about  His  loins,  the  likeness  of  the- 
glory  of  the  Lord.  The  living  creatures  and  the 
wheels  were  filled  with  one  and  the  same  spirit,  and 
ran  and  returned  as  the  appearance  of  a  flash  of 
lightning;  their  whole  body  and  their  hands  and  the 
wheels  being  full  of  eyes  round  about.  Whither  the 
Spirit  was  to  go  they  all  went,  as  insejDarable  person- 
alities. And  this,  says  Ezekiel,  is  the  hving  creature 
that  I  saw  under  the  God  of  Israel.: — Ez.  x.  20. 


God's  Thnepiece for  Mans  Eternity.    40 j 

The  Scriptures  are  thus  a  divine  incarnation  of  infal 
hble  truth  in  human  language,  "  in  words  which  the 
Holy  Ghost  teacheth";  and  so,  as  the  Saviour  was  par- 
taker of  flesh  and  blood,  and  in  aU  points  tempted  like 
as  we  are,  yet  without  sin,  the  Word  of  God,  for  the 
Holy  Spu'it's  use,  and  for  our  behef  unto  salvation, 
is  in  aU  points  like  our  natural  word,  yet  without 
error  or  imperfection:  never  the  human  without  the 
divine,  but  always  the  divine  in  and  through  the  hu- 
man, assumed  for  the  sake  of  manifesting  the  divine. 
The  two  things  are  one,  and  yet  so  manifestly  two  in 
form,  that  uni-eason  and  unbelief  may  separate  them, 
and  contemplate  only  one,  and  at  length  lose  sight  of 
the  other. 

A  stained  and  storied  window  may  be  so  con- 
structed that  you  may  look  through  it,  if  you  will, 
and  behold  the  heavens;  or  you  may  stay  your  eye 
ujion  the  coloring  and  the  figures,  and  may  see  noth- 
ing beyond,  because  you  do  not  look  at  the  window 
with  any  such  purpose;  and  even  in  a  window  with 
plain  glass,  a  man  might  stop  his  sight  at  the  sashes. 
So  with  the  Deity  of  Christ,  and  the  Godship  of  the 
Word, — men  may  not  see  it,  if  they  will  not.  When 
John  announces  that  the  Word  was  God  and  became 
flesh,  he  adds,  "And  we  beheld  His  glory,"  but  others 
did  not.  Others  beheld  nothing  but  the  flesh,  noth- 
ing of  the  glory;  they  saw  Him  indeed,  and  yet  be- 


^o^     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

lieved  Him  not,  because,  being  in  the  form  of  man, 
they  might,  if  they  chose,  have  their  eyes  holden,  that 
they  should  not  see  Him  in  the  form  of  God,  should 
not  behold,  feel,  acknowledge,  the  majesty  and  power 
of  His  Divinity. 

And  precisely  so  it  is  with  His  Word  in  its  human 
dress,  language,  imagery.  The  Scriptures  being  God- 
man,  as  Christ  is  God-man,  in  our  right  mind  we  be- 
hold their  divine  glory.  And  yet,  if  men  choose,  they 
may  be  blind,  they  may  really  behold  nothing  of  the 
divine,  nothing  but  the  human,  just  as  they  were 
blind  on  earth  who  beheld  in  Christ  Jesus  nothing 
but  a  man  like  themselves.  Is  not  this  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth, whose  father  and  mother  we  know  ?  Is  He  any 
other  personage  than  the  son  of  the  carpenter  ? 


L. 


THE  NEW-CREATING  LIFE  AND  MEANING  OF  DIVINE 
INSPIRATION  AS  INHERING  IN  THE  INCARNATE 
PERSONALITY   OF  CHRIST  THE  SAVIOUR. 

The  inspiration  is  not  only  divine,  as  Christ  is  di- 
vine, but  its  prismatic  elements  are  the  very  attri- 
butes of  Christ.  The  colors  that  constitute  every 
rainbow  of  truth  in  the  Scriptures,  and  the  active 
quickening  powers  of   all  the  rays  of  light,   all   the 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    405 


doctrines,  all  the  providential  and  restraining  inter- 
positions of  mingled  truth  and  discipline,  are  the 
workings  of  the  incarnate  new-creating  personality 
of  the  Son  of  God,  by  which,  in  human  language, 
God  informs,  awakens,  convinces,  and  inspires  the 
soul.  The  quahties  of  divine  gravitation  by  which 
God  works  in  us  both  to  will  and  to  do,  are  the  vari- 
eties of  righteousness,  gi'ace  and  peace  "  multipli£d 
unto  us,"  and  acting  upon  and  within  us,  "  through  the 
knowledge  of  God  and  of  Jesus  our  Lord ;  according  as 
His  divine  power  hath  given  unto  us  all  things  that 
pertain  unto  life  and  godliness,  through  the  knowl- 
edge of  Him  that  hath  called  us  to  glory  and  vii'tue"; 
by  whom,  are  given  unto  us  those  exceeding  great 
and  precious  promises,  the  perfection  of  which  will 
then  only  be  known  when  the  justified  and  glorified 
soul  is  presented  without  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any  such 
thing  before  the  throne  of  God  in  Christ's  likeness. 

In  all  the  dispensations  preparatory  to  the  raising 
of  this  Living  Temple,  not  a  truth  was  ever  omitted 
which  was  requisite,  not  a  measure  ever  ordered 
which  was  redundant,  or  unimportant.  If  in  the 
typical  and  temporary  ancient  tabernacle,  every  loop 
and  pin  was  necessary  to  its  perfection,  and  every 
thing  ordered  in  writing  by  God  Himself  to  Moses  ("  See," 
said  He,  "that  thou  make  every  thing  according  to  the 
pattern  showed  thee  in  the  Mount")  much  more  in  the 


^f.o6    God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 


structure  of  the  Scriptures  consigned  to  the  Church 
for  perpetual  use  and  instruction  for  eternal  life; 
every  text  must  be  arranged  by  and  for  its  author. 
This  train  of  demonstration  is  jDursued  by  Boyle  in 
his  "Work  on  the  Style  of  the  Holy  Scriptures." 
(Fourth  edition,  1625,  in  London.)  He  argues  fi'om 
the  omissions  as  weU  as  the  particulars,  and  says  with 
an  originahty  and  beauty  afterward  imitated  by  oth- 
ers, that  "  as  to  things  of  this  nattu'e,  there  is  such  a 
fulness  in  that  Book,  that  oftentimes  it  says  much  by 
saying  nothing,  and  not  only  its  expressions  but  its 
silences  are  teaching,  like  a  dial,  in  which  the  shadow  as 
well  as  the  light  informs  us." 

This  harmony  of  the  opposite  poles  of  truth,  in- 
finitely distant  from  the  capacity  of  human  thought, 
yet  infinitely  true  in  the  divine  unity,  and  in  that 
through  the  whole  created  universe,  is  the  incompre- 
hensible mystery  of  pantheism  and  personality  in  one : 
to  admit  which  requires  the  simplicity  of  a  little 
child,  the  mind  of  babes  and  sucklings,  contemplat- 
ing Christ's  own  childhood  in  the  8th  Psalm,  and  in 
Rom.  xi.  36,  and  I  Cor.  viii.  6,  and  Col.  i.  16,  and  Heb. 
chs.  i.,  ii.  In  the  most  exalted  and  divinely  inspired 
strains  of  our  Christian  poetry  we  find  the  reflection 
of  these  truths;  imagination  and  a  grateful  adoring 
faith  united  in  the  exquisite  expression  of  them.  So 
in  Cowper's  "  Task  " : 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Ete7^7tity.    ^oy 

"One  Spirit,  His, 
"Who  wore  the  platted  thorns  with  bleeding  brow, 
Rules  universal  nature.     Not  a  flower 
But  shows  some  touch,  in  freckle,  streak,  or  stain, 
Of  His  unrivalled  pencil.     He  inspires 
Their  balmy  odors  and  imparts  their  hues. 
The  Lord  of  all,  Himself  through  all  diffused. 
Sustains,  and  is  the  life  of  all  that  Uves." 

And  so  the  poet  Wordsworth: 

"From  worlds  not  quickened  by  the  sua 
A  portion  of  the  gift  is  won, 
An  intermingling  of  Heaven's  pomp  is  spread 
On  ground  which  British  shepherds  tread. 
This  silent  spectacle, — the  gleam, — 
The  shadow — and  the  peace  supreme: — 
A  presence  infinite,  a  sense  sublime 
Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused, 
Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 
And  the  round  ocean,  and  the  living  air, 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man. 
A  motion  and  a  spirit  that  impels 
All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thought." 

All  objects  of  all  thought:  every  variety  of  truth  being 
essential.  Every  sheaf  that  Christ  Himself  harvested, 
out  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  out  of  which,  passing 
it  through  His  own  heart's  blood,  He  formed  and  in- 
spu-ed  the  New; — all  things,  not  one  jot  or  tittle  super- 


^o8    God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

fluous  or  trifling,  all  divine,  as  Himself  divine,  in  His 
own  eternal  being  and  right;  and  divinehj  poor,  self- 
mortifying,  humiliated,  despised  and  suffering,  for  the 
purposes  of  His  own  dying  love,  and  for  the  creation 
of  those  omnipotent  instrumentalities  and  magnetisms 
of  that  love  through  the  cross,  in  the  sacrifice  of  Him- 
self as  "  the  propitiation  for  our  sins,  and  not  for  ours 
only,  but  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world." — I  John 
ii.  2.  "  For  their  sakes  I  sanctify  myself,  that  they  also 
may  he  sanctified  by  the  truth." 

These  truths  are  fully  understood  only  in  their  com- 
plex unity  and  intercommunicating  power  being  fitly 
framed  together,  as  magnetic  creative  jDcncils  of  hght 
to  be  employed  by  the  Divine  Spirit,  taking  of  the 
things  that  are  Christ's,  for  man's  transfiguration  into 
Christ's  likeness;  that  as  Christ  was  the  brightness  of 
the  Father's  glory,  and  the  express  image  of  His  per- 
son, upholding  all  things  by  the  word  of  His  power,  so 
also  He  should  be  revealed  as  the  Lord,  and  First- 
born, and  aU-quickeniug  new  Creator  and  Possessor 
of  His  own  inheritance  of  saints  in  light ;  Head  over  aU 
things  to  the  Church,  which  is  His  Body,  the  fulness 
of  Him  that  fiUeth  all  in  aU. 

We  can  not  find  out  the  melody  of  a  Psalm  in  sacred 
music,  but  by  practicing  the  notes,  which,  running  to- 
gether, are  at  once  the  keys  and  the  unlocking  of  the 
presence  chambers  of  a  divine  inspiration.     Playing 


God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity,    /fog 

the  organ,  a  master  of  the  instrument  draws  forth  the 
whole  meaning: 

"Untwisting  all  the  chains  that  tie 
The  hidden  soul  of  harmony." 

But  he  can  do  it  only  by  an  accord  with  the  soul  of  the 
comjaoser,  an  inward  harmony  of  faith  and  love,  to 
find  out  what  is  in  the  Bible,  by  experiment;  testing 
the  notes  by  touching  the  keys;  the  inspiration  by  con- 
tact with  the  written  words. 

Hei'e  we  see  God's  own  right  of  way  estabHshed 
through  the  Scrij^tures  for  all  believing  souls,  that 
through  His  Word,  and  the  infallible  divine  inspira- 
tion and  light  inseparable  therein,  men  watching  and 
trusting,  may  be  kept  from  the  paths  of  the  Destroyer. 
"  The  Lord  thine  everlasting  light,  and  thy  God  thy 
glory;  that  he  who  blesseth  himseK  in  the  earth  may 
bless  himself  in  the  God  of  truth,  and  he  that  swear- 
eth  in  the  earth  may  swear  by  the  God  of  truth."  "A 
word  in  season  to  the  weary,  a  light  to  the  Gentiles, 
a  way  in  the  wilderness  to  him  that  walketh  in  dark- 
ness and  hath  no  light,  but  feareth  the  Lord  and 
obeyeth  the  voice  of  His  servant."  "I  have  put  my 
words  in  thy  mouth,  and  I  wiU  bring  the  bhnd  by  a 
way  that  they  knew  not;  I  will  lead  them  in  paths  that 
they  have  not  known;  I  wiU  make  darkness  hght  be- 
fore them,  and  crooked  things  straight.     There  shall 


410     God's  Ti7nepiece for  Mans  Eternity. 

be  a  way  and  a  highway,  the  way  of  holiness ;  the 
way-faring  man,  though  a  fool,  shall  not  err  therein." 
"In  that  day  shall  the  deaf  hear  the  words  of  the  book, 
and  the  eyes  of  the  blind  shall  see  out  of  obscurity  and 
out  of  darkness.  They  also  that  erred  in  spirit  shall 
come  to  understanding,  and  they  that  murmured  shall 
learn  doctrine." — "Now  go,  write  it  before  them  in 
a  table,  and  note  it  in  a  book  that  it  may  be  for  the 
time  to  come  fokever  and  ever."     (Isa.  xxx.  8.) 


LI. 

THE  SOUL  LED  AND  INSTRUCTED  BY  SUPPLICATIONS 
—UNIVERSAL  TRUTH  DISCOVERED  AND  RECORDED 
BY  PRAYER— TESTIMONY  OF  ANCIENT  LITURGIES- 
TREES  OF  LIFE,  NOT  MERE  TENETS  OF  THEOLOGY. 

The  beautiful  hymn  of  Cowi^er,  on  the  unborrowed 
majesty  a%i  glory  of  God's  Word  is  another  sweet  me- 
morial of  these  truths,  the  work  of  a  divine  experience. 

"The  Spirit  breathes  u'pon  the  Word, 
And  brings  the  truth  to  sight; 
Precepts  and  promises  afford, 
A  sanctifying  light. 

"A  glory  gilds  the  sacred  page, 
Majestic,  like  the  sun. 
It  gives  a  light  to  every  age ; — 
It  gives,  but  bokkows  none." 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    411 

There  is  also  a  second  breathing  of  it  into  the  heart, 
by  the  Spirit  accompanjing  and  applying  it,  revealing 
its  meaning  through  its  effects  in  love,  in  the  affections, 
in  drawing  forth  the  intensity  of  our  desu-es  after 
God.  God  gives  us  disclosures  and  possessions  of 
the  truth  in  prayer,  imparting  His  strength  in  and 
through  our  own  soul's  wresthngs  with  Him.  "In  the 
day  when  I  called,  Thou  answeredst  me,  and  strength- 
enedst  me  loith  strength  in  my  soid." — Ps.  cxxxviii.  3. 
Oiu-  best  and  deepest  knowledge  of  the  truths  of  the 
gospel  is  wrought  out  and  burned  in  through  this 
exercise  by  importunity  of  spuit;  ("  They  shall  come 
with  weepings,  and  with  supphcations  will  I  lead  them." 
— Jer.  xxxi.  9).  And  our  power  to  enhghten  others, 
and  make  the  truth  burn  in  their  hearts,  increases  in 
the  same  way.  Through  prayer  Paul  was  made  to 
know  the  infinite  meanings  of  Christ's  appearance  and 
words  to  him  in  the  way  to  Damascus;  and  through 
conflicts  of  prayer  and  love  was  enabled  to  communi- 
cate them.  Compare  Eph.  i.  16,  17,  and  iii.  16,  17, 
and  Phn.  i.  4^11,  and  Col.  i.  9-11,  28,  29,  and  ii.  1-3, 
and  I  Thess.  iii.  10-13.  Through  such  incommuni- 
cable strivings  for  others,  ("I  would  ye  knew  what 
great  conflict  I  have  for  you"),  ijX.mov  dywva,  striv- 
ing according  to  his  working  ivhich  worketh  in  me  might- 
ily, dyooviZ^ofxevoi,  Paul  learned  still  more  for  himself 
of  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ;  and  then,  through 


^j.1 2     God's  Timepiece  for  Alans  Eternity. 

the  divinely  directed  and  inspired  writing  out  of  some 
of  those  petitions,  the  Holy  Spirit  recorded  for  all 
ages  those  infinite  masses  of  truth,  those  orbs  of  light, 
thus  bowled  through  the  firmament  by  the  Spirit  of 
wisdom  and  revelation  in  the  knowledge  of  Christ. 

A  record  by  the  Spirit,  a  supernatural  revelation  and 
command  of  ideas  and  phrases  beyond  reach  of  the 
human  mind,  discoverable  only  by  immediate  divine 
insj)u-ation.  And  yet  how  natural! — neither  sugges- 
tion nor  command  mentioned,  that  Paul  should  make 
this  record,  but  just  the  irrejDressible  out-pouring  of 
his  own  heart  in  love  and  prayer,  that  the  same 
baptism  with  those  truths  in  Christ  that  transcend 
all  knowledge,  and  yet  are  to  be  the  fountains  of 
infinite  spiritual  power  and  glory,  may  be  vouchsafed 
to  all  the  disciples.  And  so,  in  this  wonderful  way 
of  teaching  in  prayer  the  master-truths  that  could  be 
comprehended  only  by  the  same  personal  discipline 
and  experience,  we  are  let  into  depths  of  thought,  and 
an  apocalypse  of  Christ's  supreme  dominion  over  the 
universe  for  the  new  creation  of  sovds,  the  conception 
of  which,  and  the  concentrated  telegraphic  expres- 
sions, words,  phrases,  necessary  to  convey  them,  could 
be  taught  and  reported  only  by  that  same  new  cre- 
ating Sj)ii'it,  "  which  is  Christ  in  you  the  hope  of 
glory,"  and  which  creates  the  power  of  comprehend- 
ing an  incomprehensible   mystery  by  an  indwelling 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    41^ 

personality  of  Love,  and  by  our  thus  being  "filled 
with  aU  the  fulness  of  God,"  which  itself  is  an  impos- 
sibility to  natural  reason. 

"As  the  soul  in  prayer  gets  nearer  to  God  and 
His  truth  than  any  other  way,  so  the  voice  of  the 
Church  in  j^rayer  in  all  ages  is  the  most  living  and  per- 
fect creed."  *  It  is  truth  on  fire,  truth  expressed  by 
the  Spirit  in  the  wants,  desires,  and  adoration  of  the 
soul;  for  it  is  the  Spirit  that  maketh  intercession  in 
the  soul  with  the  groanings  that  can  not  be  uttered, 
the  Spirit  inspiring  and  offering  up  the  oblation  of 
truth  passed  through  the  life  of  the  beheving  soul  in 
prayer  and  praise  and  love.  As  the  soul  prays,  so 
it  believes,  so  it  knows;  its  convictions,  its  intuitions 
by  the  Spu-it,  its  vision  and  sense  of  things  divine,  the 
things  of  the  Spirit,  are  clearer,  brighter,  of  vaster  com- 
pass, of  greater  purity  and  strength;  for  it  is  the  Spirit 
that  takes  of  the  glory  of  Christ,  the  things  that  are 
Christ's,  and  shows  them  to  the  soul.  The  work  of 
the  Spii'it  is  to  penetrate  the  soul  with  Christ's  own 
glory,  and  absorb  it  in  His  love,  set  it  on  fire  with 
His  love,  complete  in  His  dominion  and  image. 

*  See  the  volume  of  "Bright's  Ancient  Collects,  or  Prayer 
from  Ancient  Liturgies."  The  author  remarks  in  his  preface, 
that  "to  separate  the  morals  from  the  mysteries,  the  practical 
element,  as  it  is  called,  from  the  element  of  supeknattjeal  fact, 
and  of  pure  doctrine,  is  simply  to  destroy  the  whole  fabric." 


^i^     God's  Timepiece  for  Ma7is  Eternity, 

The  great  power  iu  theology,  the  only  eifective 
power  in  the  teacher  and  the  preacher,  is  the  learn- 
ing and  possession  of  Christ's  divinity  in  this  practical 
exjoerience  of  His  love.  For  thus  the  soul's  sensibil- 
ities are  all  entwined  with  the  divineness  of  his  being, 
taking  their  hfe  from  that;  even  as  the  sap  from  the 
root  runs  up  through  the  tree  to  the  fruits;  his  di- 
vineness vitalizing  aU  His  precepts,  words,  instruc- 
tions, in  the  soul,  and  working  therein  a  jDermanent, 
triumphant,  constraining  conquering  life. 

"  Who  is  he  that  overcometh  the  world  but  he  that 
believeth  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God?"  If  the 
power  of  the  soul  over  the  world  is  lost,  it  is  be- 
cause this  divine  Christ  is  lost  out  of  it,  or  the  tenet 
is  separated  from  the  love,  or  perhaps  the  love  itself 
is  suffered  to  die  out,  and  the  dry  tenet  only  re- 
maining, becomes  inefficacious  for  life,  and  if  so  pre- 
sented or  used,  it  is  as  a  mallet  or  maul,  of  dry 
tough  wood,  beaten  on  the  human  reason  as  on  an 
emi^ty  unfeeling  di'um. 

For  indeed  aU  tenets  of  theology  become  mere 
clubs,  instead  of  being  trees  of  life  for  the  heahng 
of  the  nations,  if  they  are  brandished  without  the 
life  of  love. 

And  on  the  other  hand,  to  present  Christ  as  a 
teacher  merely,  or  a  great  human  philanthropist,  by 
"virtue  of  his  manliness,  without  the  divineness  which 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    41^ 

bases  and  holds  all  His  authority,  majesty  and  new 
creating  power,  is  to  mock  and  deny  Him,  even  while 
naming  Him;  is  to  apply  ice  instead  of  fire  to  the 
soul.  The  seven  sons  of  Sceva  undertook  the  name 
of  Christ  as  an  exorcism,  a  tenet  brandished  at  second 
hand.  Nothing  but  contempt  followed,  and  the  man- 
ifestation of  evil  sj)irits,  so  that  these  vagabond  Jews 
fled  out  of  the  house  where  they  had  attempted  their 
adjurations,  naked  and  wounded. 


LIT. 

THE  BIBLE  THE  MOST  NATURAL  AND  YET  THE  MOST 
SUPERNATURAL  OF  ALL  BOOKS— DIVINE  LIGHT  ITS 
GARMENT,  DIVINE  LOVE  AND  LIGHT  ITS  SUBSTANCE 
—A  CHILD'S  BOOK  FOR  ALL  AGES. 

We  come  then  to  this  proposition,  namely,  that  the 
WoKD  OF  God,  being  thus  both  human  and  divine,  what 
is  natural  and  human  in  it  is  as  free  and  perfect  as  if 
there  were  no  supernatural  inspiring  it;  but  as  truly  in- 
spired of  God,  and  free  from  error  and  imperfection,  as 
if  there  were  nothing  in  it  human,  hut  all  supernatural. 
This  covers  all  the  questions  of  verbal,  plenary,  doc- 
trinal, circumstantial,  every  thing.  Error  in  man  is 
natural,  and  infaUibihty  supernatural.  Now  with  in- 
fallibihty,  error  is  impossible;  and  yet,  the  Word  is 
not  less  natural  for  there  being  no  error  in  it,  even 


^i6     Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

as  the  Lord  Jesus  was  none  the  less  a  true  and  real 
man,  for  His  being  a  perfect  man.  But  error  is  un- 
natural and  imj)ossible  to  the  Divinity;  and  error 
would  render  the  Word  more  unnatural  and  impos- 
sible as  a  divine  product,  than  absolute  ^and  un- 
mingied  truth  renders  it  unnatural  and  impossible 
as  a  mere  human  jjroduct. 

The  argument  is  so  plain  and  famUiar  in  regard 
to  Christ  our  Saviour,  that  no  critic  questions  it,  as 
to  the. elements  of  His  incarnate  being. 

Our  Lord  Jesus,  as  a  man,  had  all  the  natural  and 
innocent  weaknesses  of  a  man,  just  as,  when  He  was  a 
babe  and  a  child.  He  had  a  child's  helplessness,  not 
a  man's  strength.  He  was  fatigued  and  needed  rest. 
He  was  fast  asleep  on  a  pillow  in  the  stern  of  a  fish- 
ing smack.  Early  in  the  morning  He  was  hungry,  and 
came  to  a  fig-tree,  if  haply  He  might  find  fruit  there- 
on to  serve  for  a  breakfast.  These  are  no  j)roofs  that 
he  was  not  divine,  but  demonstrations  absolute  that 
besides  being  divine,  He  was  also  human.  "  In  Him 
dwelt  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily."  He 
took  upon  Himself  our  nature,  not  changing  it  into  part 
of  His  divinity,  but  shining  through  it,  and  making 
it  divine,  as  God  the  Father  who  is  light,  is  said  to 
have  clothed  Himself  with  Hght  as  with  a  garment. 

The  same  argument  apphes  with  the  same  indis- 
putable force  to  the  Word  of  God.     It  has  aU  the 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    </// 

luarks  of  nature,  except  error  and  sin.  There  was 
Paul's  cloak  at  Troas;  he  forgot  it,  and  had  to  send 
for  it.  A  most  singular  thing  that  his  inspiration 
should  permit  him  to  forget  what  afterwards  it  would 
be  thought  worthy  of  inspii-ation  to  make  him  remem- 
ber and  mark  in  a  divine  record!  And  yet,  this  is 
no  indication  of  that  Epistle  to  Timothy  not  being 
God's  Word,  but  simply  proof  that  it  is  man's  word 
and  natiu'al,  as  weU  as  God's  Word  and  supernatural. 
But  everywhere  the  natural  is  an  enshrinement  of 
the  divine,  and  the  supernatural  adopts  and  trans- 
figures the  human,  so  that  we  can  never  draw  the 
line,  nor  say  at  any  point.  This  is  human  and  unin- 
spired. For  the  moment  we  admit  this,  all  is  uncer- 
tainty and  darkness;  we  need  another  and  higher 
divine  revelation  to  teach  us  infallibly  what  in  the 
first  is  divine,  and  what  merely  human,  what  is  au- 
thoritative, and  what  of  no  authority  at  all.  It  is 
essential  to  a  revelation  for  the  sotd  of  man,  born 
and  educated  in  this  world,  but  travelling  to  the 
eternal  world  and  to  God,  that  it  be  all  human  and 
natural  in  the  dress,  the  language,  the  imagery,  the 
play  of  genius  and  of  reason;  but  all  divine  in  the 
inspiration  and  authority,  and  no  uncertainty  whether 
one  part  may  not  be  pronounced  merely  human,  and 
only  some  other  part  divine. 

The  Bible  is  the  most  natural  book  in  the  world. 


4i8     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity, 

and  yet  the  most  supernatiiral,  the  only  supernatural. 
It  is  natural,  without  that  being  an  object  or  effort; 
in  all  things  exquisitely  simple,  unostentatious,  in- 
artificial, unelaborate,  a  spontaneous  ease  and  beauty 
no  more  produced  by  human  art  or  training,  and  no 
more  to  be  judged  by  that,  than  the  graceful  motions 
of  a  httle  child  are  to  be  learned  at  a  dancing  school, 
or  governed  by  its  rules.  The  primeval  wilderness 
could  not  grow  more  wildly  free  and  varied,  and  yet 
the  tiniest  flowers  and  mosses  in  that  wilderness  are 
wrought  with  a  care,  skUl,  perfection,  such  as  God 
the  Creator  could  alone  impart;  thrown  by  quanti- 
ties lavishly  and  carelessly  abroad,  yet  each  the  pro- 
duction of  infinite  divine  power  and  wisdom.  Just 
so  it  is  with  the  variety  in  God's  "Word,  and  yet  the 
minutest  fragments  evince  both  in  themselves  and  in 
their  places,  an  equally  microscopic  intelligence  and 
care.  "  As  there  is  a  reason  why  a  fern  grows  here 
and  a  flower  there,  why  pine  and  not  oak  crowns 
yonder  headland,  a  reason  for  every  wind  that  blows, 
a  reason  for  the  shape  and  color  of  every  cloud,  a 
reason  for  every  thing  and  for  the  place  of  every 
thing  in  the  world  of  Nature,  even  so  it  is  in  the 
world  of  Scripture."  * 

*  "The  Star  of  our  Lord,"  by  F.  "W.  Upham,  author  of  the 
"Wise  Men  and  who  they  were."  p.  101,  on  language  and 
inspiration. 


Gods  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    41^ 

The  Bible  comes  to  us  in  the  most  natural  shape 
and  manner  possible,  that  it  may  be  with  us  and  in 
us,  as  at  once  a  friendly  companion  and  teacher,  and 
a  spring  of  life.  Just  such  was  our  Lord's  example 
and  work  of  gentle,  instructive,  patient  humility,  pov- 
erty, affectionate  lowly  service,  and  attractive,  animat- 
ing, reproving,  yet  ever  encouraging  and  joy  inspiring- 
conversation.  "I  am  with  you  as  one  that  serveth; 
and  these  things  have  I  spoken  unto  you,  that  My  joy 
might  remain  in  you;  and  I  have  called  you  friends, 
and  lay  down  My  life  for  you."  So,  the  divine  Word 
is  compared  to  the  dew  and  soft  rain  descending  on 
the  mown  grass,  and  it  runs  like  a  brook  in  green 
pastures,  playing  and  laughing  Hke  the  children,  sing- 
ing as  the  birds,  a  pure  river  of  the  water  of  hfe, 
by  which  we  may  abide,  and  of  which  we  may  drink; 
but  it  does  not  thunder  from  the  sky,  a  stupendous 
fixture  like  a  cataract,  nor  stand  Hke  a  water-spout  be- 
tween earth  and  heaven. 

This  neighborhood  and  familiar  harmony  of  infinite 
mystery  and  majesty  with  childlike  unconscious  sim- 
phcity,  and  tragic  awful  sublimities  with  homely, 
every-day  occurrences;  the  mountains  trembling,  the 
sun  and  moon  standing  still  in  their  habitation;  Om- 
nipotence rending  the  rocks,  parting  the  sea,  blast- 
ing armies  with  the  sweep  of  an  angel's  wing; — 
and   side    by   side    the    gaj'dens    of    the    little    ones. 


420     God's  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity. 

the  playgrounds,  domestic  interludes  of  an  infinite 
landscape : — 

' '  These  hedge-rows,  hardly  hedge-rows,  little  lines 
Of  sportive  wood  run  wild;  these  pastoral  farms, 
Green  to  the  very  door;  and  wreaths  of  smoke 
Sent  up  in  silence  from  among  the  trees." 

And  this  Incarnate  Divine  Teacher,  walking  with  us 
through  the  cornfields,  pointing  out  to  us  the  lilies, 
that  we  may  rejoice  in  their  divine  array,  and  learn 
their  loving  lessons  of  adoration  and  confidence  from 
Him,  who  Himself  made  them  for  the  introduction  of 
our  worshipj)ing  childhood  to  our  Heavenly  Father. 
And  this  famiHar,  loving  comjoanion  of  our  souls, 
speaking  as  never  man  spake  or  taught,  by  His  own 
example  of  love,  obedience,  and  trust,  even  unto  death, 
in  His  Father  and  our  Father,  His  God  and  our  God, 
and  leaving  us  His  own  example  in  dying,  "Father, 
into  Thy  hand  I  commit  My  Spirit,"  so  that  even  in 
crossing  that  narrow  sea  our  hands  are  held  in  His. 
So  infinitely  childlike,  affectionate,  divested  of  all  ter- 
ror, clothed  with  all  joy,  is  this  Hfe-giving  gospel  to 
attract  our  souls !  Hence  too,  not  angels,  with  their 
telegraphic  banners  and  lightnings,  or  a  procession  of 
apostles  from  heaven's  holiness  and  glory,  but  men 
out  of  the  "back  slums"  of  creation,  fresh  from  the 
fall,  "clothed  with  filthy  garments,"  "brands  plucked 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    421 


from  the  burning,"  chosen  as  its  p'eac/iers;  sinful  men, 
made  believers,  blind  men  once,  but  restored  to  sigbt, 
men  once  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  but  "quick- 
ened" and  living  in  Christ,  and  able  to  speak,  from 
experimental  knowledge  and  with  intensest  sympathy, 
compassion  and  love  (as  in  Ps.  xxxii.  and  cxvi.,  and 
Eph.  ii.  1-7),  both  of  the  ruin  and  the  remedy,  both 
of  the  evil  and  the  cure,  both  of  the  death  and  the  hie. 
Earthen  vessels  for  such  treasures,  that  the  excellency 
of  the  power  might  be  manifestly  only  from  God,  not 
man.  Thus,  both  in  the  revelation  by  God,  and  the 
preaching  by  man,  the  testimony  is  that  of  God,  the 
witness  is  the  witness  of  the  Spirit. 

With  this  combination  of  the  natural  and  the  super- 
natural, the  Bible  is  distinguished  from  aU  other  books 
by  its  simplicity,  and  its  perfect  freedom  from  exag- 
geration. It  never  colors  too  highly.  You  may  say 
it  would  be  impossible  to  do  this,  where  truths  re- 
specting God  and  eternity  are  the  subject-matter;  for 
neither  human  thought  can  reach  the  measure,  nor 
human  language  the  expression  of  their  sublimity 
and  importance.  This  is  true.  And  yet,  they  may 
be  spoken  of  in  a  style  of  bombast  and  exaggeration. 
Where  there  is  not  real  feehng,  but  the  resemblance 
of  it,  this  is  very  aj)t  to  be  the  case.  The  language  of 
reahty,  the  language  of  deep  feeling,  is  always  that  of 
simpHcity ;  but  genuine  feeling  is  on  the  whole  so  rare. 


422     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

and  the  language  of  exaggeration  so  common,  that  the 
simj)le  reahty  seems  tame;  it  is  dull  and  uninteresting, 
and  ordinary  minds  prefer  and  require  to  be  stirred  by 
noise  and  pretension.  The  writers  of  the  sacred  Scrip- 
tures might  have  taken  this  course,  would  certainly 
sometimes  have  fallen  into  it,  had  not  the  Spirit  of  God 
been  their  teacher.  As  it  is,  what  simpUcity,  what  un- 
pretending announcement  of  the  mightiest  truths, 
what  quietness  in  the  manner,  and  what  unadornment, 
nay,  we  had  almost  said,  what  rudeness  and  homeli- 
ness in  the  terms  used  ! 

The  Bible  again  requires  no  more  feeling  than  Just 
that  for  which  it  lays  the  foundation,  provides  the  fuel, 
and  gives  the  reason.  Here  also  it  is  different  from  all 
other  books.  Here  is  another  internal  evidence  of  its 
divine  origin.  AVe  can  find  no  false  religion,  in  which 
there  are  not  claims  advanced,  unsupported  by  the  real 
dignity  and  worth  of  the  system.  But  here,  the  sim- 
ple proposal  of  the  system  establishes  at  once  and  for- 
ever the  nature  of  the  claim.  It  is  supreme  and  infi- 
nite. The  system  is  such  in  itself,  as  to  make  any 
thing  less  than  such  a  claim  incompatible;  any  thing 
more  is  impossible.  The  system  could  not  require 
what  it  does,  were  it  any  thing  less  than  what  it  is, 
were  any  of  its  parts  deficient,  were  it  not  made  up  of 
the  very  truths,  which  it  does  contain. 

But    the    moment   we    reject   the    grand    cardinal 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    42^ 

truths  of  the  divinity  of  Christ,  and  the  atonement  by 
Him  becaAise  He  is  divine,  and  by  means  of  His  being 
divine,  we  lose  all  power,  all  possibihty  of  proving 
that  the  Bible  is  the  Word  of  God.  It  is  the  Word  of 
God,  because  these  truths  are  taught  in  it,  and  God 
only  could  have  struck  them  out,  could  have  revealed 
them,  could  have  provided  the  reality  of  which  they 
are  the  manifestation.  God  only  could  have  predes- 
tined, pre-arranged,  created,  those  truths,  conceived 
the  plan  of  them,  and  fulfilled  the  reality;  and  God 
only  could  bear  testimony  in  regard  to  them;  man 
could  not  do  it,  but  could  only  receive  them,  and  be- 
lieve them,  as  revealed  from  God.  There  they  are; 
and  if  we  deny  them,  we  can  not  beheve  in  the  Bible 
as  the  Word  of  God.  On  the  other  hand,  their  being 
there  compels  us  to  believe;  they  could  not  have  been 
there  but  by  revelation  from  the  Almighty,  and  the 
claims  of  the  book  containing  them,  and  of  the  system 
in  the  book,  would  be  baseless,  false,  contradictory,  ab- 
surd, without  them.  The  Word,  in  reveaUng  Christ 
as  a  divine  Saviour  proves  itself  the  Word  of  God, 
and  Christ  as  a  divine  Saviour,  a  self-existent  reality, 
is  the  life,  the  substance  of  that  Word,  the  assurance 
of  its  truth  to  the  soul,  and  the  ground  of  its  authority. 


424     God' s  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity, 


LIII. 

COMPLEXITY,  PARTICULARITY  AND  INDESTRUCTIBLE 
UNITY  OF  THE  ARGUMENT— ITS  POWER  OF  ANCHOR- 
AGE FOR  THE  SOUL  THE  SAME  IN  ALL  AGES,  BUT 
INCREASING  THROUGH  ALL— A  NEVER  ENDING  NEW 
CREATING  LIFE. 

By  the  argument  from  tlie  Old  Testament  to  the 
New,  j)romising  mankind  the  Son  of  God,  a  Saviovir; 

By  the  argument  and  assurance  also  promising  a 
Saviour  from  our  sins,  and  the  forgiveness  of  all  sin, 
through  faith  in  Him,  and  eternal  redemj)tion  from 
that  dying  in  our  sins,  otherwise  inevitable  to  every 
unbelieving  soul; 

By  the  argument  from  the  existence  and  character 
of  Christ,  as  the  Son  both  of  David  and  of  God,  the 
Divine  Saviour; 

By  the  argument  from  the  concentration  and  ful- 
filment of  prophecy  in  Him;  also  from  the  very  de- 
hneation  of  His  character,  impossible  for  the  human 
imagination  to  have  wrought  ou.t,  proving  His  divine 
existence,  and  from  the  answer  of  that  existence  to 
the  prophecies,  showing  Him  beforehand  divine; 

By  the  argument  from  His  own  expressed  sanc- 
tion and  use  of  the  Old  Testament  as  the  Word 
of  God,  infaUible,  and  that  can  not  be  broken,  and 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.     425 

His  assertion  of  the  inspiration  of  His  apostles  equally 
infallible ; 

By  their  appeals  again,  both  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  to  Christ; 

By  the  argument  from  His  prayer.  Sanctify  them  by 
Thy  truth,   Thy   Word  is  truth; 

From  the  very  necessity  of  the  case,  from  the  na- 
ture in  detail  of  the  materials  in  the  whole  mass  of 
revelation,  which,  as  they  could  not  have  been  im- 
agined by  man,  so  could  neither  be  rightly  arranged 
nor  presented,  if  left  to  the  possibilities  of  man's  hm- 
ited  reason  and  imperfect  concej)tion  and  utterance, 
but  required  as  divine  a  wisdom  in  the  handling  as 
in  the  creating,  and  might  be  misrepresented  and 
misconceived  by  the  misplacing  or  defect  of  language 
even  in  a  single  word; 

By  the  necessity  therefore  for  a  revelation,  once 
for  all,  of  absolute  perfection,  truth  infinite,  immu- 
table, eternal,  free  from  error,  as  perfect,  as  appli- . 
cable,  as  direct  fi-®m  God,  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  thovisand  years  hence,  as  when  first  promvdgated 
to  constitute  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  and  for  the  de- 
termination of  the  destinies  of  eternity; 

By  the  argument  fi'om  the  very  penalties  of  unbe- 
lief, from  the  exaction  of  faith  as  an  obligation  out- 
weighing all  others; 

By  the  argument  fi'om  the  very  ideal  of  a  divine 


^j.26     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

revelation,  with  an  eternal  penalty  as  the  reason  of 
it,  and  the  certainty  that  any  mixture  of  error  im- 
pairs its  indisputable  authority,  which,  to  admit  a 
just  eternal  penalty,  can  not  endure  the  least  flaw 
in  the  indictment,  nor  any  possibility  of  any  serious 
mistake  by  any  conscience  enlightened  by  the  Divine 
Spirit,  which  is  a  Spirit  always  acting  by  the  truth, 
and  never  in  the  least  respect  sanctioning  error; 

From  the  necessity  of  such  infaUible  j)erfection,  im- 
posed also  by  the  scope  and  manner  of  God's  provi- 
dence, and  by  the  microscopic  minuteness  and  exact- 
ness of  His  works,  in  which  we  can  never  find  error, 
nor  admit  its  possibility; 

By  the  necessity  that  that  which  is  to  be  the  key 
to  the  understanding  of  His  providential  administra- 
tion through  all  time,  and  retributive  through  eter- 
nity, should  command  every  secret  ward  and  com- 
bination, with  an  exact  jDredisposed  and  determined 
fitness; 

By  the  necessity  also  of  such  an  adaptation  be- 
tween the  details  of  that  revelation  and  the  discov- 
eries of  science,  in  all  ages,  that  there  never  shall 
be  any  possible  ground  for  infidelity  to  stand  uj)on, 
but  temporary  difficulties  and  obsciu'ities  shall  re- 
sult in  greater  Hght,  as  the  nebulosities  of  the  heav- 
ens, after  furnishing  a  hopeful  text  for  infidelity,  are 
all  resolved  into  whole  and  perfect  worlds;  from  the 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    42^ 


impossibility  of  any  contradiction  between  the  Word 
and  the  Works  of  the  Deity,  the  very  affirmation  of 
Jehovah  being  that  of  this  difference  between  His 
Word  and  Works,  that  while  heaven  and  earth  shall 
pass  away,  His  Word  shall  never  pass  away,  nor  in 
one  jot  or  tittle  fail,  and  that,  while  aU  flesh  is  grass, 
and  all  the  glory  of  man  as  the  flower  of  grass,  the 
Word  of  the  Lord  liveth  and  abideth  forever,  and 
is  that  by  which  the  whole  human  race  is  to  be 
judged;— 

From  aU  these  pressures  of  necessity,  and  trains 
of  demonstrative  argument,  the  proof  of  an  absolute 
fulness  and  literal  perfection  of  inspiration  is  irre- 
sistible. 

It  is  not  to  be  evaded,  and  can  not  be  nullified, 
nor  rendered  indistinct;  and  yet,  to  the  um-egenerate 
mind  there  is  a  veil  over  the  face  of  all  this  trij.th, 
until  the  heart  looks  to  Christ  Himself,  by  faith,  for 
salvation;  for  the  veil  is  over  the  heart,  nowhere  else; 
and  no  man  ever  feels  the  power  of  this  overwhelm- 
ing majesty  of  proof,  this  transcendent  aU-penetrating 
presence  of  the  light,  and  these  thousand  rainbows 
into  which  the  very  atmosphere  and  storms  of  human 
life  and  experience  scatter  it,  except  by  the  Spii'it  of 
God  in  the  heart;  the  eyes  of  our  understanding 
being  enhghtened  that  we  may  see  the  glory  of  the 
Redeemer,  and  know  what  is  the  hope  of  His  calling, 


/^zS     God's  Timepiece  f 07'  Mail  s  Eternity. 

and  what  the  riches  of  the  glory  of  His  inheritance 
in  the  saints. 

We  have  said  that  the  materials  of  a  divine  revelation 
must  as  necessarily  be  arranged  and  presented  by  the 
Author  of  them  as  created;  the  one  necessity  compels 
the  other.  Given,  the  raw  materials  of  the  universe, 
what  being  could  understand  them,  or  combine  them 
under  law,  or  manifest  their  harmonies,  but  He  who 
created  them?  Their  perfection  in  mutual  relation 
and  attraction,  and  their  motions  in  obedience  to  one 
law,  are  as  necessarily  of  God's  arrangement,  as  their 
matter  and  form,  of  God's  creation.  A  distinguished 
naturahst  (was  it  not  Agassiz  ?)  has  stated,  as  the  re- 
sults of  a  profound  examination  of  the  structure  of 
plants,  that  the  same  law,  the  same  harmony  of  pro- 
portion, regulates  the  distances  between  the  leaves 
on  a  stem,  as  between  the  orbits  and  times  of  worlds 
in  the  solar  system;  and  just  so,  for  a  perfect  revela- 
tion, there  is  absolute  necessity  that  the  same  wisdom 
and  j)ower  that  created  its  masses  of  light  and  ap- 
pointed their  revolutions,  should  govern  every  rela- 
tion belonging  to  them;  the  law  of  language,  the 
subtle  analogies  of  words,  the  varieties  of  style,  the 
choice  of  phrases,  the  minutest  verbal  niceties,  being 
under  the  same  law,  as  the  mighty  orbed  ideas,  the 
thoughts  of  God  enclosed  in  human  expression.  Be- 
cause the  expression  is  human,  it  is  not  therefore  the 


God's  Thnepiece for  Mans  Eternity.    /f.2g 


less  superhuman  and  divine;  because  natural,  not 
therefore  the  less  supernatural;  no  .more  than  the 
gTowth  of  the  leaves,  because  it  is  the  work  of  life,  is 
therefore  any  less  the  arrangement  of  Jehovah,  or 
less  inevitably  tmder  His  law  and  direct  agency,  than 
the  orbits  of  the  planets. 

There  are  internal  harmonies,  and  laws  of  adjust- 
ment in  the  Word  of  God,  as  subtle,  as  undiscovered, 
as  wonderful,  and  minute,  as  any  thing  yet  found  out, 
or  to  be  found  out,  in  the  composition  and  combina- 
tions of  the  universe.  The  divine  Word  is  no  more 
of  man,  because  he  speaks  it,  than  the  fruits  of  the 
earth  are  of  the  husbandman,  because  he  sows  the 
seeds  of  them,  and  from  all  that  God  has  given  him, 
chooses  what  to  sow.  But  the  sense  and  understand- 
ing of  this  testimony  are  only  by  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit. 

This  then  is  the  nature  and  secret  of  the  inde- 
pendent authority  and  living  power  of  the  Word  of 
God,  and  this  is  the  talisman  of  omnipotence  which 
those  men  Avield,  in  whose  hearts  God  has  set  His 
W^ord  as  a  living  fire,  and  has  commissioned  and 
commanded  them  to  go  forth  and  proclaim.  Thus 
SAiTH  THE  Lord.  This  is  the  commission,  in  a  cer- 
tain degree  and  sense,  of  the  whole  new-created 
Church  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  but  of  His  teaching  and 
preaching   ministers,   in   a  special    consecration  and 


^jo     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

separation  for  that  work;  His  ministers,  whom  He 
holds  in  His  own  right  hand  as  stars,  whom  not  the 
golden  candlesticks  support,  but  the  Lord  Jesus, 
and  whom  He  keeps  shining  with  His  own  Hght, 
living  in  His  own  life,  given  them,  not  through  the 
church,  nor  through  any  historical  or  hierarchical 
succession,  nor  through  any  human  instrumentality, 
but  always  directly  from  Himself,  by  His  Spirit  with 
His  Word. 

And  indeed  we  can  not  be  toe  grateful  to  God, 
that  He  has  made  our  faith  to  stand  not  in  the  wis- 
dom of  men,  but  in  the  power  of  God,  and  that  He 
allows  no  human  mediator  between  Himself  and  us. 
We  see  the  entire  indejDendence  of  our  faith  in  re- 
gard to  all  human  authority,  and  its  entire  and  sole 
dependence  upon  God  and  His  S^Dirit.  We  see  that 
the  evidences  of  Christianity  are  in  the  Word  of  God 
itself,  and  not  in  books  containing  merely  the  affi- 
davits of  uninspired  men,  transmitted  down  by  fal- 
Uble  recorders.  The  body  of  siich  seeming  evidence, 
composed  merely  of  historical  vouchers  and  commen- 
taries, increases  as  the  distance  from  the  original 
transactions  increases,  learned  men  still  adding  to 
its  accumulation  in  every  age,  though  the  fountain 
remains  just  where  it  was,  and  just  the  same. 

But  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  declares  plainly,  "  I  re- 
ceive not  testimony  from  man";  and  those  who  would 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    4JI 

beKeve  must  come  to  Him,  and  not  to  human  his- 
torians. AVe  are  permitted  to  step  across  all  these 
interminable  libraries,  all  these  dead  carcasses  of  cer- 
tificated ecclesiastical  successions,  and  "  Books  of  Ori- 
gins," all  these  huge  gulfs  of  human  pride,  philoso- 
phies, and  affidavits,  and  to  come  right  to  the  original, 
deep,  hving,  eternal  spring,  where  we  drink,  without 
waiting  for  an  authorized  dipper,  or  for  an  angel  or 
a  man  of  learning  to  trouble  the  waters.  And  the 
water  of  life  is  just  as  pure  and  potent  to  a  man  en- 
tirely ignorant  of  all  that  has  taken  place  in  chxu'ches 
and  councils  since  the  apostles'  time,  as  to  one  who 
has  waded  through  whole  swamps  and  seas  of  evi- 
dence, and  crossed  gulfs  and  deserts  of  history,  on 
the  hne  where  men  testify  that  the  high  road  to  the 
fountain  lies.  Let  us  not  be  imposed  upon  by  self- 
constituted  mediators  between  us  and  the  Word  of 
God,  as  if  the  truth  of  God's  testimony  were  nothing 
without  the  sanction  and  authority  of  men.  In  order 
to  learn  the  truth,  we  must  "  leakn  Chkist,"  and  we 
have  no  real  faith  if  it  does  not  bring  us  to  Him,  or 
if  it  is  merely  a  faith  in  history,  and  not  in  Him. 

Does  our  faith  stand  in  the  opinion  and  Judgment 
of  men,  or  God?  "We  must  learn  to  believe,  because 
God  says  it,  not  because  history  affirms  it,  or  allows 
it.  Some  men  talk  of  a  faith  not  grounded  in  chui'ch 
history,  as  an  unhistorical  faith.     But  a  faith  in  the 


^f^2     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

Word  of  God  can  not  he  unhistorical,  but  indeed  is 
the  only  true  historical  faith;  for  the  history  that  is 
in  God's  Word  is  the  only  infallible  history.  ALL  other 
is  mixed  with  lies.  If  we  rely  on  man's  testimony, 
because  without  it  we  can  not  rely  on  God's,  and 
if  we  take  our  opinions  at  second  hand,  such  a  faith 
is  but  sj)iritual  blindness  and  death.  We  must  ex- 
amuie  history  by  the  Word  of  God,  and  not  the 
Word  of  God  by  history.  Human  testimony  and 
exposition,  without  this  independent  Hving  faith,  is 
like  an  awkward  waiter  with  snuffers,  who  promises 
to  make  the  candle  burn  brighter,  but  sniiffs  it  out, 
leaving  us  nothing  but  a  smoking  wick.  Not  a  few 
of  the  learned  expositors  calling  themselves  recon- 
sti'uctors  of  Israel's  history  and  text,  have  been  just 
such  snuffers.  We  bring  not  the  law  and  the  testi- 
mony to  be  judged  by  these,  but  these  and  all  things, 
to  be  judged  by  the  law  and  the  testimony. 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mail  s  Eteimity.    4JJ 


LIY. 

THE  PROVERB  OF  "THE  DEVIL  TO  PAY"  ILLUSTRATED 
—BISHOP  HOADLY  ON  THE  KINGDOM  OF  CHRIST 
AND  OF  CONSCIENCE— CONJECTURAL  CRITICISM  AND 
CLINKERS  OF  THOUGHT— THE  WAY  TO  DOUBTING 
CASTLE— THE  FOG  WITHIN  AND  BREAKERS  WITH- 
OUT—FRANKLIN'S EXPERIENCE  AND  BELIEF  IN 
PRAYER. 

The  fabrication  or  supposition  of  legends,  lost 
books,  and  assumed  unknown  authors,  in  order  to 
displace  the  known  books  of  Biblical  history,  as  tra- 
ditions, falsehoods  and  forgeries,  in  order  to  bring 
down  the  Scriptures  into  analogical  harmony  with  the 
myths  of  all  other  nations,  and  therefore  of  no  higher 
authority,  is  so  like  that  of  the  tempter  and  destroyer 
of  mankind,  that  it  seems  to  realize  in  sober  earnest 
the  profound  common  proverb,  taken  out  of  Satan's 
ledger,  "  The  devil  to  pay."  The  consequences  return 
upon  the  authors.  False  principles  assumed  as  true, 
or  true  ones  falsely  stated,  and  the  false  statement 
carried  out  into  working  supremacy,  are  as  rats  car- 
rying off  phosphorous  matches  into  their  holes,  where 
the  gnawing  of  them  sets  the  house  on  fire.  Men's 
own  souls  are  thus  destroyed  as  by  delirium  tremens, 
and  no  man  ever  questioned  the  justice  of  such  a 
retribution. 


^j^     God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  sermons  ever  preached 
in  the  Enghsh  language  was  by  Bishop  Hoadly,  March 
31st,  1717,  on  the  Nature  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ, 
from  John  xviii.  36,  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this 
world."  The  Lord  Jesus  the  sole  Lawgiver  to  His 
subjects,  the  sole  Judge  of  their  Joehavior,  in  matters 
of  conscience  and  eternal  salvation:  no  visible  human 
authority,  no  interpreters  on  whom  His  subjects  are 
absolutely  to  depend,  no  judges  over  the  consciences 
or  religion  of  His  people.  "The  question  with  all 
men,"  said  the  bishoj),  "  ought  to  be  whether  Christ 
did  not  know  the  nature  of  His  own  kingdom  or 
church  better  than  any  since  His  time;  whether  we 
can  suppose  He  left  any  such  matters  to  be  decided 
against  Himself  and  His  own  express  professions;  and 
whether,  if  an  angel  from  heaven  should  give  us  any 
account  of  His  kingdom,  contrary  to  what  He  Himself 
hath  done,  it  can  be  of  any  weight  or  authority  with 
Christians  ?  " 

"  The  only  cure  of  eternal  susj)icions,  doubts,  and 
perplexities,  is  to  go  back  to  the  New  Testament 
itself,  because  there  alone  we  shall  find  the  original 
intention  of  such  words,  or  the  nature  of  the  things 
desig'ned  to  be  signified  by  them,  declared  and  fixed 
by  our  Lord,  or  His  apostles  fi-om  Him,  hy  some  such 
marks  as  may,  if  we  will  attend  to  them,  guide  and  guard 
us  in  our  notions  of  those  matters  in  which  we  are  most 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    ^j^ 

of  all  concerned.'^  His  kingdom  is  within,  and  Hia 
jDOwer  and  word  a  power  that  worketh  within.  The 
worth  and  destiny  of  the  soul  are  decided  by  what  is 
within,  by  the  central  principle  and  impulse  of  a  con- 
science towards  God. 

Now  it  is  no  matter  how  nidely  the  machinery  is 
made,  if  it  obeys  the  divine  impulse,  if  the  central 
spring  is  there  and  the  machinery  answers  to  it.  The 
wheels  of  a  watch  might  be  made  of  rough  iron  wire, 
and  the  hands  of  whittled  wood,  but  if  the  main- 
spring were  perfect,  and  the  adjustment  and  motion 
of  the  parts  accurate,  that  is  all  that  you  need  for  a 
trusty  tune-keeper.  That  makes  a  perfect  watch.  It 
is  able  to  carry  you  through  all  countries,  seas,  and 
seasons,  according  to  the  power  that  worketh  within. 
Able  to  take  you  on  a  voyage,  and  regulate  your  busi- 
ness, your  aj)pointments,  your  responsibilities,  accord- 
ing to  the  power  that  worketh  within. 

A  watch  with  a  pewter  case  and  wooden  wheels 
would  be  better  for  you  with  that  accurate,  perma- 
nent, powerful  action,  than  the  most  deUcate,  ex- 
quisite, costly  machinery  of  gold  and  jewels,  without 
the  central  guiding  power.  A  turnip,  if  it  kept  time 
for  you  by  a  life  and  force  within,  would  be  better 
than  the  costliest  chronometer  ever  constructed,  with- 
out a  good  main-spring.  According  to  the  power  that 
worketh  in  you,  God  is  able  to  carry  you  through  the 


^^6     God's  Timepiece  for  Man  s  Eternity. 

battles  and  tempests  of  life,  through  temptation,  dif- 
ficulty, danger,  through  aU  worlds,  up  to  His  own 
throne  in  His  likeness.  But  without  that  power 
working  within,  you  might  have  the  intellect  of 
Newton,  the  genius  of  Shaksj)eare,  the  mathematics 
of  Laj)lace,  the  mechanics  of  hun  of  Syracuse,  all  the 
capacities  and  skilful  tact  of  the  most  practical  men 
of  ability  that  ever  lived,  and  you  would  have  no 
permanent  divine  character;  nothing  but  intellectual 
powers  without  a  moral  or  spiritual  regulator,  and 
animating  motive,  holding  you  to  God. 

And  it  must  hold  you  to  Grod,  while  you  are  in  the 
body,  and  under  a  veil  or  curtain  in  regard  to  the 
invisible  world  and  God's  government  of  it,  by  some 
external  demonstration  and  guide,  given  you  from 
God,  to  which  the  inward  moral  regulator  shall  ac- 
curately and  intuitively  answer.  That  external  guide 
is,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  above  man's  power  to 
construct  or  imagine.  It  is  divine  inspiration;  it  is 
God's  work,  God's  Word,  for  man's  guidance;  and  as 
a  watch  must  run  with  reference  to  the  universe, 
and  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  set  there  for  measure- 
ments of  time,  in  hours,  days,  months,  years,  seasons, 
so  the  works  of  a  man's  heart  and  conscience,  to  be 
worth  an}^  thing  for  true  practical  jDurj^oses,  must 
correspond  with  God's  realities,  God's  principles,  re- 
vealed in  His  "Word.     The  conscience  is  useless  with- 

7 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    4jy 

out  such  correspondence;  and  equally  useless  if  tho 
revelation  to  which  it  must  answer  and  correspond, 
be  not  a  revelation  of  absolute  truth.  If  the  revelation 
be  not  perfect,  neither  can  the  inward  watch  be  true. 
A  mistake  or  falsehood  in  either  case  would  render 
the  whole  worthless.  Oid  of  season,  out  of  reason;  es- 
pecially, if  eternal  results  are  admitted;  and  if  not, 
then  the  whole  is  of  very  little  consequence. 

There  are  such  things  in  men's  reasoning  from  con- 
jectural criticism,  and  hypothesis  without  fact,  as 
chnkers  of  thought.  And  how  great  is  the  absurd- 
ity of  using  them  as  if  they  were  fresh  coal !  Some 
kinds  of  coal  make  them  rapidly,  and  they  cling  to 
the  reasoning  processes  so  fast  that  they  can  not  be 
broken  off,  or  cleared  away.  The  mind  becomes  like 
a  house-furnace,  and  false  opinions  and  prejudices  are 
the  chnkers. 

Like  an  old  Eoman  wall,  the  cement  in  which  the 
stones  were  laid  becomes  stronger  than  the  stone  it- 
self, and  it  is  easier  at  length  to  break  the  stones  than 
the  prejudices.  The  prejudices  become  at  length 
foundations  and  buttresses  of  the  strongest  build- 
ings, and  one  generation  is  born,  lives,  worships  and 
dies,  in  temples  made  out  of  the  errors  of  the  pre- 
ceding. Hence  the  necessity,  from  the  cradle  to  the 
grave,  of  being  built  up  out  of  such  stuff  and  with 
such  cement  as  Paul  describes,  with  such  wonderful 


^^8     God's  Twicpiece  for  Maiis  Eternity. 


comjDound  of  love  and  logic,  in  his  Epistles  to  the 
Ephesians  and  Colossians;  "built  uj^on  the  foundation 
of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  Himself 
being  the  chief  corner-stone  in  whom  all  the  building 
fitly  fi'amed  together,  gkoweth  into  a  holy  temple  in 
the  Lord,  rooted  and  grounded  in  love,  speaking  the 
truth  in  love,  and  growing  up  in  all  things  into 
Christ,  our  Head;  from  whom  the  whole  body,  fitly 
joined  together,  and  compacted  by  that  which  every 
joint  supplieth,  according  to  the  effectual  working  in 
the  measure  of  every  part,  maketh  increase  of  the 
body,  unto  the  edifying  of  itself  in  love." 

Now  the  moment  we  desert  this  divine  plan  and 
wisdom  of  temple-building  for  eternity,  as  a  habita- 
tion of  God  through  the  Spirit,  and  betake  ourselves 
to  human  virtue  as  our  quarry,  we  buHd  on  quick- 
sands, for  storms  and  destruction.  There  is  such  an 
architecture,  that  holds  not  by  the  propitiatory  sacri- 
fice of  Chi-ist,  nor  by  the  cement  of  His  dying  love, 
but  by  the  virtues  of  sincerity  in  man,  even  amidst 
utter  unbelief  and  erroi%  and  by  a  trust  in  the  be- 
nevolence of  God,  without  Christ  as  the  foundation. 

Over  this  stile  lies  the  way  to  Doubting  Castle  kept 
by  Giant  Despair.  The  narrow  way  that  the  pilgrims 
had  been  treading  was  somewhat  rough  to  their  feet, 
and  they  were  getting  tired  and  dusty  and  foot-sore. 
The  broad  green  meadow,  beside  the  strait  way,  was 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity,    ^jg 

soft  and  flowery  and  exceedingly  inviting  and  tempt- 
ing with  its  a,ttractions.  It  seemed  moreover  to  lie 
along-side  the  rough  path  where  they  had  been  trav- 
elling, and  at  any  moment,  if  there  was  any  danger 
or  enemy  occurrent,  they  could  step  back  and  be  in 
safety  again  on  the  King's  own  highway.  Might  they 
not  try  it  for  a  while  ?  Was  it  not  commanded  them 
to  prove  all  things,  and  then  hold  fast  to  that  which 
is  good  ?  Well,  at  all  events  they  would  venture  for 
a  little.  We  all  know  the  result;  first  doubtful,  then 
dark  and  gloomy,  then  tempestuous  and  dreadful,  be- 
came the  way,  till  from  terror  and  exhaustion  they 
fell  asleep,  and  waked  only  to  behold  Giant  Despair 
standing  over  them,  and  in  his  face  and  words  no 
mercy  for  them. 

Now  this  Broad  Church  Theology  smooths  down 
and  sows  with  flowers  a  wide  meadow  for  men's 
thoughts  and  beliefs;  and  at  length  doubts  them- 
selves seem  but  the  results  of  an  earnest  and  disin- 
terested pursviit  after  truth;  and  the  pilgrims  begin 
to  think  they  are  then  giving  the  greatest  proof  of 
their  sincerity,  when  they  venture  the  experiment 
outside  the  straight  and  narrow  path. 

The  effect  of  these  speculations  on  the  pilgrim  is 
as  the  gathering  of  a  fog  upon  the  landscape,  the 
dropping  of  a  dark  curtain  before  a  scene  of  glory. 
You  were  travelHng  slowly  up  the  mountain  and  at 


^^o     God's  Timepiece  f 07''  Man  s  Etcriiity. 


every  turn  in  the  zigzags  of  the  road,  admiring  some 
new  revelations  of  beauty.  But  the  mists  begin  to 
rise  around  you  before  you  are  aware,  and  at  length 
they  steal  every  prospect  from  your  sight,  until  above, 
around,  below,  a  cloud  of  dripping  mist  envelops  you, 
that  if  you  staid  in  it  would  drench  you  to  the  bones. 
There  are  no  more  delectable  mountains,  there  is  no 
more  heavenly  horizon,  nor  sky,  nor  sun,  nor  shin- 
ing light,  but  gloom,  coldness,  nightfall,  darkness,  de- 
spair. You  saw  Mont  Blanc  once;  it  was  an  un- 
questioned magnificent  reality.  Now  you  can  not  as- 
certain its  place,  nor  a  gleam  of  its  regal  glaciers  nor 
its  snowy  dome.  If  you  go  down  now  again  into  the 
world  you  will  have  no  remembrance  of  aught  heav- 
enwards, but  clouds  and  endless  depths  of  gloom; 
abysses,  down  which  you  are  tempted  to  throw  your- 
self as  a  plumb  line  for  measurement. 

If  the  fog  were  only  on  the  landscape,  another  day, 
a  day  of  sunshine,  it  may  be  removed.  But  when  it 
enters  into  the  soul,  "if  the  light  that  is  in  thee  be 
darkness,  how  great  is  that  darkness !  " 

We  know  when  we  are  in  a  fog,  but  when  the  fog 
is  within  ourselves,  we  are  not  aware  of  it;  the  moment 
we  are,  it  is  dissipated.  A  man  in  London  may  find 
himself  in  so  thick  a  fog  at  noonday  that  aU  the  street 
lamps  have  to  be  hghted,  and  bells  rung  in  the  streets 
to  tell  him  where  he  is.     The  thicker  the  fog  outside 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    ^^/ 

in  such  a  case,  the  more  certainly  every  body  knows 
whai  it  is.  Yet  at  the  vei'y  same  time  half  the  people 
in  London  may  be  enveloped  within  in  so  thick  a  dark- 
ness, that  they  put  evil  for  good  and  good  for  evil  and 
do  not  know  it.     So  at  sea,  in  the  voyage  to  eternity. 

And  so  vnth  the  fog  of  error  and  self-opinion  in  the 
soul.  Some  men's  confidence  is  only  the  result  of 
their  having  the  understanding  darkened,  being  alien- 
ated from  the  life  of  God  through  the  ignorance  that 
is  in  them  because  of  the  blindness  of  their  heart.  A 
fog  is  on  their  souls,  yet  they  are  driving  on  as  if  it 
were  clear  weather.  If  the  fog  were  suddenly  hfted, 
what  a  fearful  revelation  of  breakers,  on  which  they 
must  inevitably  strike,  and  be  dashed  to  pieces,  con- 
tinuing that  course.  We  have  sailed  in  a  fog  on  the 
Atlantic,  when  every  minute  or  two  the  bell  was 
sounded;  an  indication  of  danger  indeed,  but  then 
also  a  comfort,  because  we  knew  our  danger.  But 
to  have  aU  precautions  disregarded,  and  to  be  driv- 
ing with  aU  sjDeed  in  a  thick  mist,  was  terrific.  "We 
drove  one  night  with  this  presumption,  our  captain 
being  tu-ed  of  the  foggy  weather  and  determined  to 
make  haste,  but  in  the  mornmg  we  were  entirely  out 
of  our  reckoning,  and  the  fog  suddenly  lifting  for  a 
few  moments,  disclosed  a  huge  reef  right  before  us, 
on  whicli,*five  minutes  later  we  should  have  struck. 

In  such  a  case,  the  letter  killeth.     It  is  the  Spirit 


442     God's  Timepiece  for  Maiis  Eternity. 

that  giveth  light,  and  saveth  life.  It  is  the  Spii'it  that 
teacheth  the  right  interpretation  and  application  of 
the  letter.  Dr.  Franklin  was  always  applying  the  in- 
cidents and  escapes  of  common  hfe  in  such  a  way  that 
his  observations  may  serve  as  exquisite  illustrationsTif 
high  princij^les  in  spu'itual  science. 

"  The  model  of  a  good  sailing  ship,"  saj^s  he,  "  has 
been  exactly  followed  in  a  new  one,  which  has  proved 
on  the  contrary  remarkably  dull.  I  apprehend  that 
this  may  partly  be  occasioned  by  the  different  opin- 
ions of  seamen  respecting  the  modes  of  loading,  rig- 
ging and  sailing  of  a  ship;  each  has  his  method;  and 
the  same  vessel  laden  by  the  method  and  orders  of 
one  cai^tain  shall  sail  worse  than  when  by  the  orders 
of  another. 

"  Unknown  and  unsuspected  currents,  different 
judgments  in  the  officers  commanding  successive 
watches  with  the  same  wind,  the  watchmen  sometimes 
answering  mechanically  and  half  asleep."  Franklin 
was  in  this  way  near  being  wrecked.  The  light  sud- 
denly discovered  seemed  to  Franklin  as  large  as  a 
constellated  cart  wheel,  and  they  were  running  on 
the  reef.  In  his  letter  to  his  wife  giving  an  account 
of  the  escape,  he  says,  "Were  I  a  Roman  CathoHc, 
perha]3s  I  should  on  this  occasion  vow  to  build  a 
chapel  to  some  saint,  but  as  I  am  not,  were  I  to  vow 
at  all,  a  shoidd  he  to  build  a  lightJiouse." 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.  '  ^^j 


Apply  all  this  to  the  voyage  of  life,  and  our  escapes 
from  shij)wreck.  Over  this  stile.  The  rich  man  would 
fain  have  sent  Lazarus  with  the  lantern,  when  it  was 
too  late.  But  John  Bunyan,  with  the  forces  of  the 
experience  and  truth  of  Christian  and  Hopeful,  builds 
a  warning  by  the  wayside,  in  this  life.  Go  not  out  of 
the  King's  highway.  Walk  in  the  light,  as  He  is 
in  the  light,  who  hved  and  walked  for  our  example, 
by  the  Word  of  His  Father  and  our  Father,  His  God 
and  our  God. 


CONCLUSION. 

"Sanctify  the  Lord  of  Hosts  Himself!  Bind  up 
THE  Testimony!  Seal  the  Law  among  my  disciples! 
For  He  established  a  Testimoxy  in  Jacob,  and  ap- 
pointed a  Law  in  Israel,  which  He  commanded  oub 
fathers;" — before  the  first  tabernacle  and  service  in 
Shiloh;  before  the  Era  of  the  Judges  and  the  Proph- 
ets; before  David  and  Samuel  and  Solomon;  before 
the  Psalms  and  the  Temple  sanctuary  and  worship 
on  Mount  Zion ;  "  that  they  should  make  them 
known  to  their  children,  that  the  generation  to  come 
might  know  them,  and  their  children  should  arise  and 
declare  them  to  their  children,  to  set  their  hope  in 
God,  and  not  forget  His  works,  but  keep  His  com- 
mandments; and  not  be  as  their  fathers,  a  stubborn 


444     God's  Timepiece  for  Mails  Eternity. 

and  rebellious  generation,  that  kept  not  the  Covenant 
of  God,  but  refused  to  walk  in  His  Law."  One  Law 
OF  Love;  one  Covenant  of  Mercy;  one  Testimony  of 
NEw-CKEATma  Grace  in  Christ,  forever  and  ever. 

It  has  pleased  God  to  give  us  a  Timepiece  for 
Eternity  because  the  impossibility  is  so  great,  for 
any  created  being,  of  measuring  Time  with  any  ex- 
actness except  BY  Eternity.  For  this  reason  God 
hatk  set  Eternity  in  men's  hearts;  the  conception 
of  the  central  Divine  Attribute  is  there,  the  meas- 
ttrement  of  all  values  by  that,  which  in  the  nature  of 
things  is  immeasurable;  the  search  after  that,  which 
in  the  nature  of  things  is  unsearchable;  the  never- 
ceasing  thirst  of  searching,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  impossibility  of  finding  out.  So  all  our  days  are 
limited,  and  yet  eternal,  by  one  sure  gravitation  of 
Worship,  Faith  and  Love,  infaUible,  towards  God 
our  Saviour;  our  Saviour  because  we  have  sinned; 
our  God  and  Saviour,  because  He  only,  against  whom 
we  have  sinned,  can  forgive;  our  Resurrection  and 
our  Life,  because  only  in  Him  can  we  live  forever; 
and  in  Him  only  by  daily  believing  in  Him  with  the 
confidence  and  love  of  little  children;  leaving  forever 
all  the  anxieties  of  all  our  wants  to  be  sujDplied  by 
the  loving  kindness  of  our  Heavenly  Father. 

It  is  not  possible  for  the  deepest  jDrofoundness  and 
subtlety,  or  the  highest  majesty  and  glory  of  human 


God's  Timepiece  for  Mans  Eternity.    44^ 

reason,  to  conceive  any  thing  more  blissful  than  the 
Eternity  of  such  a  life  of  gratitude  and  love;  any 
thing  more  divine,  than  the  Eternal  Self-existence 
of  the  Creative  Fountain  of  such  love  and  worship. 
Our  Timepiece  for  Eternity  is  the  gift  from  God 
of  such  an  infallible  measurement  of  the  moments 
and  hours  of  our  earthly  existence;  so  filled  with  the 
Spirit  of  the  Author  and  Giver  of  life,  as  to  make 
every  downward  glimpse  of  His  own  life  in  us  an 
upward  thanksgiving  reverberation  in  gratitude  and 
love  from  ourselves  to  Him.  In  Him  was  Ufe,  and 
the  life  was  the  hght  of  men;  the  true  light  which 
lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world,  and 
returneth  forever  by  faith  and  love,  to  the  fountain 
from  which  it  proceeded;  the .  love  of  the  only- 
begotten  Son,  who  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father, 
and  hath  declared  the  invisible  God  unto  us,  in  His 
own  incarnate  manifested  being,  as  the  Lamb  of  God, 
who  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world.  Oh  the  in- 
finite blessedness  and  glory  of  having  confessed  by 
faith  such  a  Saviour,  in  the  midst  of  a  world  that 
comprehended  Him  not,  because  of  the  pride  of  rea- 
son and  the  ignorance  of  unbelieving  sense  ! 

"  Good  wiiiL  to  Man  ! 
Peace  on  Earth; 
GiiOEY  TO  God  in  the  highest  ! 
Foe  Thine  is  the  Kingdom, 
The  Power  and  the  Glory, 
Forever,  Amen." 


DEMCO  38-297 


DATE  DUE 


